Mordy is a town in

Siedlce County __NOTOC__ Siedlce County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998 ...

Masovian Voivodeship Masovian Voivodeship or Mazowieckie Province (, ) and any variation thereof, is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, containing Poland's capital Warsaw. Masovian Voivodeship has an area of and had a 2019 po ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, with 1,831 inhabitants (2004).

History of Mordy

Jewish Community

After the First World War there were approximately 1,800 Jews in Mordy - more than half of its population. They were mostly employed in trade and peddling, while a few were tradesmen - mainly tailors and cobblers. The community ran a fund for loans underwritten by The Joint. There were several

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 ...

Shtiebel A shtiebel (, pl. ''shtibelekh'') is a place used for communal Jewish prayer. In contrast to a formal synagogue, a shtiebel is far smaller and approached more casually. It is typically as small as a room in a private home or a place of business ...

s in town, as well as

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

parties such as the Bund and

Agudat Yisrael Agudat Yisrael (; Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Agudas Yisroel'') is a Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jewish political party in Israel. It began as a political party representing Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews in Poland, originating in the Agudath Israel movement ...

. There was a Jewish public library and a Jewish culture club. In 1920 Polish troops killed several leaders of the Bund, accused of supporting the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

during the Polish-Soviet War. The German army invaded Mordy in September 1939, but left after two days. The

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

replaced the Germans only to retreat after some two weeks, and Germans re-captured the town. In the following months Mordy, being close to the

Bug River The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of .Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, ) was an administrative body, established in any zone of German-occupied Europe during World War II, purporting to represent its Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form ''J ...

, which was established in autumn of 1939. Many Jews were recruited as forced labor in a camp near Mordy, to drain swamps, together with Jews from other near-by towns. During 1940 an influx of Jewish refugees into the town began, and at the year's end, the number of Jews rose to about 2,000. In the spring of 1941, five-hundred Jews were brought to the camp from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. In November 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established with 3,360 residents. At the end of 1941, Jewish refugees were brought into the ghetto, and by May 1942 the number of inhabitants rose to 3817. At the beginning of 1942 the SS executed some Jews who smuggled food. During May and June 1942, some 450 Jewish refugees arrived from

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

and other places. The Mordy ghetto was liquidated on August 22, 1942. All residents, about 4,500 people were transferred to

Siedlce Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...

, then deported to

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...

together with Jews from other places in the area.Yad Vashem Ghettos Encyclopedia (Hebrew text)
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References

External links

Jewish Community in Mordy
on Virtual Shtetl Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Siedlce County Holocaust locations in Poland {{Siedlce-geo-stub