Riesenburg

Summary: Not much is known about the history of the Jewish community of Riesenburg (present-day Prabuty, Poland). Individual Jews lived in Riesenburg in the early 1700s, but it was not until the early 1800s that a Jewish community was established there. Local Jews consecrated a cemetery and established a synagogue, the latter of which was of neo- Gothic design, in 1812 and 1855, respectively. (The cemetery was in use until 1930.) Jews began to flee Riesenburg soon after the Nazis rose to power, so that by 1937 only 65 Jews lived in the town. On Pogrom Night, Nazis stormed the synagogue and burned it down. The Jewish cemetery was destroyed during the war, and is now a garage. One can find fragments of gravestones bearing Hebrew and German inscriptions scattered among the trees and the grass of the cemetery site. As of this writing, the town has never erected a memorial.

Author / Sources: Moshe Finkel
Source: EJL, IAJGS
www.sztetl.org.pl