Jews settled in this small region variously called Ruthenia, Carpathian Ruthenia, Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia or simply Transcarpathia as early as the 15th century. Local rulers allowed Jewish citizens to own land and practice many trades that were precluded to them in other locations. Jews settled in the region over time and established communities that built great synagogues, schools, printing houses, businesses, and vineyards. By the end of the 19th century there were as many as 150,000 Jews living in the region.
The Last Jews of Zakarpattia

Haredi Judaism in Subcarpathian Ruthenia

Interwar Subcarpathian Ruthenia was an important centre of

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

("Ultra-Orthodox") Judaism, including

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

groups. Many outstanding

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

s lived here or found refuge from neighbouring countries, leading ''

yeshivot A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in par ...

'' (religious schools) and keeping a ''hatzer'' (court), specifically in Munkacs. These groups were often fiercely competing with each other, and with secular or liberal Jewish groups.

Beginning of the 20th Century

The last antebellum census in Hungary was in 1910. The four counties of

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

that covered the territory (now known as

Carpathian Ruthenia Transcarpathia (, ) is a historical region on the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast. From the Hungarian Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, conquest of the Carpathian Basin ...

) were

Ung Ung or UNG may refer to: People * Woong, a Korean given name also spelled Ung * Ung (surname), a Cambodian and Norwegian surname * Ung Thị (full name Nguyễn Phúc Ung Thị; 1913–2001), Vietnamese-born American businessman * Franz Unger (1 ...

, Bereg, Ugocsa and Máramaros. Counties of Kingdom of Hungary, Ugocsa and Máramaros were split between Czechoslovakia and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in 1920 by

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

after the disintegration of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

, which lost the

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1939, Hungary annexed back the northern parts of its former counties from the short lived Ruthenian state of

Carpatho-Ukraine Carpatho-Ukraine or Carpathian Ukraine (, ) was an autonomous region, within the Second Czechoslovak Republic, created in December 1938 and renamed from Subcarpathian Rus', whose full administrative and political autonomy had been confirmed by ...

after the breakup of the

Second Czechoslovak Republic The Second Czechoslovak Republic (Czech language, Czech and ), officially the Czecho-Slovak Republic (Czech and Slovak: ''Česko-Slovenská republika''), existed for 169 days, between 30 September 1938 and 15 March 1939. It was c ...

. And in 1940, their southern parts of the former counties returned from Romania by the

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all of Maramureș and part of Cri ...

. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

annexed the northern parts and today it belongs to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

as a successor state to the Soviet Union. The southern parts were reverted to Romania after the World War II. Counties of Kingdom of Hungary, Ung and Bereg became part of Czechoslovakia in 1920 by Treaty of Trianon, except a small part of Bereg that stayed in Hungary. The southern parts its former counties returned to Hungary from Czechoslovakia in 1938 by the

First Vienna Award The First Vienna Award was a treaty signed on 2 November 1938 pursuant to the Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace. The arbitration and award were direct consequences of the previous month's Munich Agreement, whic ...

, and their northern parts from the short lived Ruthenian state in 1939.

Czechoslovakia

In 1921, about 27% of the Jews of Subcarpathian Rus lived from agriculture, making it the highest percentage of Jewish peasantry in all of Europe. In the 1921 and 1930 censuses, 87 and 93 percent respectively of all Subcarpathian Jews considered themselves to be Jews by nationality. It was, therefore, the least assimilated, Yiddish-speaking group in Czechoslovakia.

Jewish-local relations on the eve of World War II

Memoirs and historical studies provide much evidence that in the 19th and early 20th centuries Rusyn-Jewish relations were generally peaceful and harmonious. In 1939, census records showed that 80,000 Jews lived in the autonomous province of Ruthenia. The attitude of some Ruthenians to their Jewish neighbors is vividly represented in the play by

Alexander Dukhnovych Alexander Vasilyevich Dukhnovych (24 April 1803 – 30 March 1865) was an Transcarpathian Ruthenian priest, poet, writer, pedagogue, and social activist of the Russophile orientation. He is considered as the awakener (Rusyn: Будитиль, ...

(1803–1865), ''Virtue is More Important than Riches'
briefed here
as well as in short-story triptych ''Golet v údolí'' by

Ivan Olbracht Ivan Olbracht, born Kamil Zeman (6 January 1882 – 20 December 1952), was a Czech people, Czech writer, journalist, censor and translator of German language, German prose. Biography The son of writer Antal Stašek and his Jewish-born Catholic ...

. In contrast to other areas of Ukraine, Ruthenia never experienced chaotic riots and pogroms.

The Holocaust

May 1944 - Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau

During

, once the legal government of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

was overthrown by the Germans, the "

Final Solution The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was a plan orchestrated by Nazi Germany during World War II for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official ...

" of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

was also extended to Carpathian Ruthenia. To be sure, the legal government of Hungary and its fascist elements had already played a prominent role in killing Jews even before this. Beginning in 1939, draconian laws had been passed banning Jews from going to school or from operating their previous businesses. Then in the summer of 1941, Hungarian authorities deported about 18,000 Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia to the Galician region of Poland-Ukraine. This was done under the guise of expelling alien refugees, but in practice most of those expelled were from families that had lived in the region for the previous 50–100 years. Many who might have been able to prove their long-term residency were taken without being given the chance. Most of the deportees were immediately handed over to Nazi German ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'' units at Kaminets Podolsk and machine-gunned over a three-day period in late 1941. A few thousand others were simply left to their own devices after being pushed across the border into Galicia, in the area near Kaminets Podolsk. The vast majority of this group subsequently perished over the next two years in ghettos and death camps with other Jewish residents of the region. Those Jews fortunate enough to avoid the 1941 deportations faced further privations under Hungarian rule. Men of working age were conscripted into slave labor gangs in which a high proportion perished. The remnant were ultimately returned to their homes in time to suffer deportation to concentration camps under Nazi rule after 1944. In April 1944, 17 main ghettos were set up in cities in Ruthenia. 144,000 Jews were rounded up and held there. Starting on May 15, 1944: 14,000 Jews were taken out of these sites to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

every day until the last deportation on June 7, 1944. The following table shows the death trains originating from these four counties that went through Kassa (

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

). (Some Jewish males were on forced labor (munkaszolgálat); some trains did not pass through Kassa; and some Jews from the area were forced to board trains departing from neighboring counties): By June 1944, nearly 62.5% of all the Jews from ghettos of Carpathian Ruthenia had been exterminated, together with other Hungarian Jews. Of more than 144,000 Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia, of which 110,000 were deported, around 90,000 were murdered (just 20,000 deportees have survived). Except for those who managed to flee, only a small number of Jews were saved by Rusyns who hid them. Since the fall of

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

, archives have been opened to allow study of the facts about the implementation of the Final Solution in the province. The most discussed issue is whether, and to what extent, local collaborators helped the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in performing the tasks and to what extent such collaboration was forced upon those collaborators by the threat—or actuality—of brutal violence against themselves.

Post World War II

The estimated number of surviving Jews from the area was 45,000–54,000 people. Most of them left Carpatho-Ruthenia before the new Soviet borders were sealed in the fall of 1945, so there were only 4,000 Jews left in 1948. At the time of the first post-World War II census in the Soviet Union, in 1959, the number of Jews in the Zakarpattia Oblast was 12,569 - most of which were immigrants from other parts of the Soviet Union. Most Jews who remained in the region emigrated to the United States and Israel during the 1970s in the wake of the

Jackson–Vanik amendment The Jackson–Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974 is a 1974 provision in United States federal law intended to affect U.S. trade relations with countries with non-market economies (originally, countries of the Soviet Bloc) that restrict freed ...

, while a few went to Hungary. The last Soviet census in 1989 found only 2,700 Jews living in the area. In the 1990s the remaining Hasidic population of Mukachevo had left. Khust Synagogue - interior

Today some synagogues have survived. The following cities have synagogues that existed prior to World War II: *

Khust Khust (, ; ; ; ; ; ) is a city located on the Khustets River in Zakarpattia Oblast, western Ukraine. It is near the сonfluence of the Tisa and Rika Rivers. It serves as the administrative center of Khust Raion. Population: Khust was the capi ...

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

* Mukachevo

References

* Henry Abramson, ''Collective Memory and Collective Identity: Jews, Rusyns, and the Holocaust'', Carpatho-Rusyn American, vol. 17 (1994), no. 3. * Alexander Dukhnovich, ''Virtue Is More Important Than Riches'' (translated by Elaine Rusinko), East European Monographs, 1995, 85pp., . * Mikhael Mitsel, "The Activity of "the Joint" in Mukachevo in 1944 - 1945 and the Soviet attitude toward It in 1953", Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1(58)2007 . *

Ágnes Ságvári Ágnes Ságvári (19 November 1928 – 13 June 2000) was a Hungarian historian most known for her historical research on the history of the Hungarian Holocaust. After serving in the party apparatus of the state, Ságvári began her career at the ...

, ** ''Studies on the History of Hungarian Holocaust'', Budapest, Napvilag, 2002. , 151pp. (in English) ** ''Tanulmanyok a magyarorszagi holokauszt törteneteböl'', Budapest, Napvilag, 2002. , 132pp. (in Hungarian)

External links

Dr. Agnes Sagvari, "The Holocaust in Carpatho-Ruthenia"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100427055216/http://www.zsido.hu/tortenelem/holocaust.htm , date=2010-04-27 A historian analyzes the place of Carpathian Ruthenia in Hungarian

irredentism Irredentism () is one State (polity), state's desire to Annexation, annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by Ethnicity, ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to or the same as the ...

, the scientific falsification of census records, the impact of the Hungarian administration, an archival review with full documentation.
Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...