Tirschtiegel

General information: First Jewish presence: 1745; peak Jewish population: unknown; Jewish population in 1932: 22
Summary: Although it is likely that Jews lived in Tirschtiegel (presentday Trzciel, Poland) in the 17th century, the earliest record of their presence there is dated 1745. Approximately 250 Jews, most of whom were poor, lived in Tirschtiegel in the late 18th century (253 in 1772), at which point plans for the construction of a synagogue were drawn up. Beginning in 1789, the community employed a rabbi. The town was home to a Jewish school (founded in the 19th century); the school was closed down shortly before World War I as a result of low enrollment numbers. Tirschtiegel’s Jewish population dropped markedly during the early 1930s. On Pogrom Night (November 1938), rioters torched the synagogue and demolished the town’s last Jewishowned house. Later, in the spring of 1940 (a slave labor camp for Jews had been established in Tirschtiegel at the beginning of the war) the remaining Jews were interned in a camp near Schneidemuehl and were, later, deported to the East. Today, the site of the former synagogue accommodates a fire station and a storage facility.
Author / Sources: Fred Gottlieb
Sources: EJL, LJG
Located in: posen-west-prussia