It is likely that Jews began to settle in Annopol as early as the start of the 17^th century,[1.1] though the oldest documents confirming their presence in the town date back to the 18^th century. According to the 1787 census, the town was inhabited by 106 Jews, who constituted ca. 44% of the total population.[1.1.1]

Most local Jews were involved in grain and cattle trade, alcohol production and sale, crafts, financial services. They were also leaseholders of inns, salt storage depots, and orchards. It is uncertain when exactly a formal community was established; different sources give disparate dates ranging between the 16^th and the 18^th century.[1.2]

A square owned by the Jewish community was located to the north-west of the Market Place. It housed a synagogue, with a Jewish cemetery located nearby. In the 19^th century, there were as many as two synagogues in Annopol, one built in stone and the other of wood, and towards the end of the century a new cemetery was established outside the borders of the town. The duties of rabbi were performed by Nachman Rubinstein (1828–1878), Elimelech Rubinstein (1878–1923), and Nachman Baruch Rubinstein.

The community was thriving in the 19^th century, and Jews started to play a significant economic and social role in the town. Annopol boasted numerous Jewish craftsmen (mostly tailors and shoemakers) and Jewish-owned stores, manufacturing businesses, and service providers. There existed a Jewish hospital funded and financed by the most affluent residents of Annopol.[1.3] At the time, the town was known as an important centre of Torah studies.[1.1.1]

In the mid-19^th century, the municipal authorities issued a decree banning Jews from wearing traditional garments, payot, and beards. Jewish schools and the Jewish hospital were closed. This sparked numerous protests of the local Jewish population, which in turn triggered anti-Jewish riots. As a result of the unrests and the deteriorating economic situation toward the end of the 19^th century, Jews began to migrate from Annopol and head for larger cities and locations overseas.[1.1.3]

During the interwar period, Annopol was a typical shtetl inhabited mostly by Jews. Despite the extremely difficult economic conditions caused by the aftermath of World War I, the Annopol community was growing so quickly that in 1921, Jews comprised ca. 73% of the total population.

In the interwar period, 57 Jews worked for Polish farmers as day-labourers, which may be interpreted as an evidence for the town’s difficult economic situation. Preserved records also mention 50 Jewish traders, 94 merchants, three cattle traders, two horse merchants, and one horse trader. As indicated in other sources, most Jews worked in crafts (42%) and trade (37%). There were also two cheder teachers in Annopol as well as one private tutor, two medical assistants, and two bookkeepers.

In 1931, Annopol was inhabited by 1,388 Jews.[1.4] Among the 1,253 children born in Annopol before World War II, 859 were Jewish. In the 1930s, Jews made up 68.5% of the total population of the town.[1.5].

Local branches of many Jewish political parties were active in Annopol. In the 1920s and 1930s, Zionist parties enjoyed greatest popularity, though the Orthodox Agudath also had a strong position among the local population.[1.1.1] In 1928–1929, there was also a strong communist organisation in Annopol.

The Hebrew “Tarbut” school played an important culture-shaping role in the town.[1.1.3] Among its students were many members of Zionist youth parties (Hashomer Hatzair and Hechalutz Hatzair) active in Annopol in the 1930s. Many of them migrated to Palestine before the outbreak of the war. The town boasted an extensive network of cheders, a communal Talmud Torah school, as well as modern secular Jewish schools for girls and boys.[1.1.3] There was also a small yeshiva which prepared boys aged 14–17 to take up studies at the rabbinical school in Lublin.

During the second half of the 1930s, the economic situation of Jews in Annopol was steadily deteriorating. Impoverished people were given aid by numerous charities operating in the town. A loan bank and a loan fund providing help to the poorest were established with the financial support of Jews living in the USA and Canada.[1.1.3]

Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, western provinces of the country found itself under occupation. Shortly after the war had broken out, many Jewish escapees from other towns arrived in Annopol, causing a sharp increase in the number of people in the town. In May 1942, there were nearly 2,000 people in the area, including Jews from nearby villages and smaller localities, as well as from Kalisz and Łódź. During the war, the Germans formed a labour camp for Jews in nearby Rachów and Janiszów, and established a ghetto in Annopol in the spring of 1940. The Nazis destroyed both synagogues and devastated the Jewish cemeteries.

The process of liquidating the ghetto began on 15 October 1943. After a preliminary selection, ca. 400 people were sent to labour camps in Gościeradów and Janiszów. The elderly and the infirm were shot on the spot, and the remaining inhabitants were deported to the Kraśnik Ghetto, from where they were sent to the extermination camp in Bełżec in November.[1.1.1] In November 1943, ca. 630 Jews were transported from the camp in Budzyń near Kraśnik to the labour camp in Rachów. They were shot immediately upon arrival. The victims were Jews from Austria and Germany.[1.6]

A group of men who escaped from Annopol before the mass deportation hid in the nearby forests and took part in the plot to liberate Jews imprisoned in the Janiszów labour camp in early 1943.[1.1.1]

Bibliography

• “Annopol-Rachow,” [in:] The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, eds. S. Spector, G. Wigoder, vol. 1, New York 2001, pp. 46–47.
• Rachow-Annopol; Pirkei Edut Ve-Zikaron, ed. S. Nitzan, Tel Aviv 1978 [online] https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Annopol/annopol.html [Accessed: 7 Jan 2020].
• Szymanek W., “Z dziejów miasta Annopol,” Regionalista 2000.
• Szymanek W., Z dziejów powiatu janowskiego i kraśnickiego w latach 1474–1975, Lublin 2003.