It is not known when the first Jews arrived in Rybnik. Presumably they came here at the turn of the 15^th century, as was the case in other Silesian towns, e.g. in the neighbouring Żory[1.1]. However, there are no historical records to confirm the presence of Jews in Rybnik at that time. In 1565, under a resolution of the Silesian Parliament, Jews were expelled from Siliesia. They returned here only after Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742. According to Wojciech Jaworski, the oldest Jewish community in Upper Silesia established after this territory was seized by Prussia was the community in Cieszowa which formed in the middle of the 18^th century[1.2].

First actual figures for Rybnik come from the late 18^th century. The 1784 census recorded 42 Jews who made up 5.2% of the total number of Rybnik's inhabitants. In 1787, there were 94 Orthodox Jews living here, comprising 7.5% of the town's inhabitants. Initially, the Jews in Rybnik did not have their own synagogue or cemetery. They buried their dead on the Jewish cemetery in Mikołów (established in 1682) and attended prayers in Żory[1.3].

The Jewish community in Rybnik went through a period of great changes in 1784 when the General Statutes for the Jews in the South and New-East Prussia (General Juden-Reglement für Süd und Neu-Ostpreussen) came into force. When the war activity during the Napoleonic Wars subsided, the Prussian authorities introduced two more laws: the Cities' Organizational Reforms in 1808 and the Edict of Emancipation in 1812. Under these, Jews gained citizen rights which made them equal to other citizens of the Prussian state. Additionally, they were allowed to practise crafts without belonging to guilds, and enjoyed the right to purchase urban property. This partial equality of the Jewish population in the Kingdom of Prussia led to the formation of other Jewish communities in Silesia (by the beginning of the 19^th century, there were three: in Żory, in Mikołów and in Bieruń Stary)[1.4].

In 1811, the Jews in Rybnik erected their own synagogue. It was a small, wooden, one-storey building located by the Nacyna River, on a street known today as ul. Raciborska[1.5]. In 1812, a Jewish community was formed in the town[1.6]. In 1815, the Jews in Rybnik established their cemetery. The land for the necropolis was purchased by a local blacksmith, Józef Nowak, for the amount of 100 thalers The cemetery was located at the junction of today's ul. Wieniawskiego and ul. 3 Maja. In 1815, there were 160 Jews living in Rybnik, who made up 11.9% of the town's total population. This number grew steadily during the next three years. In 1825, there were 267 Jews recorded, comprising 14.4% of the inhabitants of Rybnik[1.7]. The entire district of Rybnik considered, in 1828 there were 1207 Jews who made up 3.1% of the total number of district inhabitants[1.8]. In 1835 there were 312 Jews living in Rybnik (15.5%)[1.9].

In the period between 1842 and 1848, a new brick-built synagogue was constructed at the intersection of the then ul. Zamkowa and ul. Gimnazjalna (today ul. Zamkowa and ul. Chrobrego – the building stood opposite the present-day City Hall)[1.10]. At that time, the Jewish community did not have the money required to build the synagogue, so its construction was supported by the wealthy German baron Durand-Baranowice who lent the board a significant amount. Ceremonially opened in 1848, the building was a detached hipped-roof building. It was built in the neoclassical style, with a large Star of David at the top of the front wall, and a large balustraded deck in front of the main entrance. The interior of the synagogue was semicircular, with high crescent-shaped windows and the ladies' gallery. The Torah Ark was in the eastern wall. The most conspicuous element of the synagogue's decoration was its bimah.

In November 1847, King Frederick William IV issued a law which made the Jewish population equal in political and civil rights to the Christian population. The law also regulated the numerous legal controversies regarding the organisation and operation of Jewish communities. It gave the Jewish communities a corporate status under the public law, with their own statutes and without any superior religious hierarchy[1.11]. In addition, it specified the territorial boundaries of synagogal districts. The Jewish commune in Rybnik, which included the territories of Wodzisław Śląski and Żory, coincided with the district of Rybnik in the administrative structure. It was one of the 38 organised Jewish communities within the Regierungsbezirk Oppeln[1.12].

In 1850, the Prussian Parliament adopted a new constitution which ultimately reconfirmed the granting of civil rights to Jews. As described by Willy Cohn: “It [i.e. the constitution – author's note] practically ended this long-lasting process. The Silesian Jew, whose existence was frequently under threat during the half-century, eventually could practise his trade in the country that became his homeland”[1.13]. In 1855, there were 365 Jews living in the town, comprising 12.6% of the total number of its inhabitants[1.14].

In 1855, the office of a rabbi was taken by Daniel Fraenkel, PhD (1822–1890). Fraenkel was born in Żory, obtained his PhD degree in Halle, and then worked as a religion teacher in Frankfurt (Oder). It is unknown exactly when he left Rybnik[1.15]. After his departure, the office remained vacant for as many as 30 years, until 1885. From that year to 1912, the rabbi in Rybnik was Braunschweiger, PhD, who was followed by Arthur Rosenthal, PhD, Nellhaus, PhD, and Salo Levin[1.16].

In 1866, the Chevra Kadisha burial society was formed[1.17].

In 1872, Emanuel Friedlaender, a Jewish entrepreneur from Gliwice specialising in coal trade, purchased first mining licenses in the Rybnik area[1.18].

In 1872, the Upper Silesian Union of Synagogal Communities (Oberschlesische Synagogen-Gemeinden) was established, which included the synagogue in Rybnik.

In 1877, the Jewish school was closed. From then on, Jewish children had to attend a Catholic school[1.19].

In 1888, during an assembly of Jewish communities of the Regierungsbezirke Oppeln, a non-statutory union called Verband der Synagogengemeinden in Regierungsbezirke Oppeln was established, which went on to set up a Jewish orphans' home in Rybnik[1.20].

Jews specialised in tailoring, fur clothing, goldsmithery, jewellery and clockmaking. They also practised stampmaking, dyeing, glassmaking and printing. As far as food and beverage is concerned, they were leading in bakery, distilling and brewing. They also invested in metallurgy and mining. In 1885–1890, the Lachman brothers, Solomon and Kasper, owned a steelworks. They called their company F-a Lachman zakłady hutnicze i sztancownia (F-a Lachman Steelworks and Stamping), and at the beginning of the 20^th century the name changed to Huta Żelaza “Silesia Spółka Akcyjna” (Silesia Steelworks Public Limited Company). From 1887, the Silesia Steelworks was owned by Oscar Caro, a Jewish entrepreneur from Gliwice. He merged it with Julia Steelworks in Bobrek (now a part of Bytom), Hermina Steelworks in Łabędy, Heinrich Kern & Co (a wire factory) and Baildon Steelworks in Katowice. As a result of this merger, a concern called Oberschlesische Eisenindustrie A.G.für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb was established[1.21].

At the same time, Fritz Friedlaender from Gliwice invested in hard coal mining in the Rybnik area. He acquired the local coal mines of Emma (currently Marcel), Rymer, Anna and a large number of previously unexploited coalfields. At that time, they were undercapitalised and outdated. The total coal production remained at the level of 200 thousand tonnes per year. Friedlaender became involved in the modernisation of the collieries, and he constructed housing estates in their vicinity for coal mine workers to live in. In 1903, he established Rybnickie Gwarectwo Węglowe (Rybnik Coal Trade Union), which went to employ 13 thousand workers in the 1920s. The annual coal production was 2.5 million tonnes plus 200 thousand tonnes of coke[1.22].

At the end of the 19^th century, Herman Muller set up a brewery which produced 12 thousand hectolitres of beer per year in the interwar period. The other two breweries in the town belonged to the family of Izydor and Ludwik Muller[1.23]. The Bohm family had a roastery, and Alfred Aronade, the Priester family, Emil Prager, Józef Manneberg and Otto Bayer owned department stores[1.24]. Among the town councillors were merchant Abraham Prager (1891), Fabian Leuchte, merchant Eugen Leuchter (1911), Benno Levy, Szymon Boehm, Noah Leschcziner, Ludwig Prager, Alfred Aronade and others. The 1910 census indicated the presence of 365 Jews in Rybnik, who made up 3.1% of the total number of inhabitants[1.25].

The ideas of haskalah were very popular among the Jews of Rybnik. The haskalah movement developed in the 1780s, influenced by the Enlightenment in the European countries. Its aim was to develop Jewish secular education, it advocated cultural and social assimilation, and opposed orthodoxy in Jewish life. The Jews of Rybnik spoke German on a day-to-day basis, and sometimes even converted to Christianity.

The end of the First World War brought about profound changes in Upper Silesia. The rebirth of the Polish state on 11 November 1918 increased pro-Polish sentiments among the Silesian population. This led to a conflict with the German community and sparked three consecutive Silesian Uprisings. The majority of Jews retained their strong allegiance to the Germans. At the time, many Silesian Jews decided to leave for the West, choosing major urban centres in Germany as their destination. This was also the case in Rybnik.

On 20 March 1912 a plebiscite was held in Upper Silesia. In the vote, the majority of Jews was in favour of keeping Upper Silesia under German rule. The total of 4714 (71%) votes In Rybnik were for the town to remain in Germany. Despite the popular vote, the Polish community provoked the Third Silesian Uprising, as a result of which the town was awarded to Poland. Most Jews left Rybnik for Germany.

After 1922, Polish Jews, mainly from Zagłębie Dąbrowskie but also from the territory of the former Congress Poland, started coming to Upper Silesia. Their arrival partly compensated for the outflow of German Jews, and made it possible for the Jewish communities in Silesia to survive. However, they were faced with considerable resentment shown both by the local authorities and by the long-time Jewish inhabitants. This was so because the former Congress Poland was perceived by the inhabitants of Upper Silesia as backward, poor and culturally inferior. This resentment on part of pro-German Jews was also occasioned by the conservatism of Polish Jews. In addition, the incoming Jews were perceived as business competition, plus it was feared that the pro-Polish tendencies would grow. These conflicts carried over to the internal life of the Jewish communities, and had a negative impact on their development.

In 1923, the Jewish community in Rybnik had 120 members[1.26]. In the interwar period, the community board was dominated by pro-German assimilationists. The president of the board of the Jewish community in Rybnik from 1922 to 1926 was Salo Priester, and from 1927 to 1938 – Martin Kornblum[1.27]. From 1925 on, the board members included: shop owner Alfred Aronade, clothes shop owner N. Leschcziner, shareholder of Rybnik's brewery Maksymilian Richter and the aforementioned Salomon Priester – wholesaler and clothes shop owner[1.1.19].

After a portion of Upper Silesia was awarded to Poland, the ranks of Jews leaving the area for Germany were joined by rabbis of the local Jewish communities. Between 1922 and 1924, the migrating rabbis included Chorzów's Goldschmidt, PhD, Mysłowice's Bassfreund, PhD, and Rybnik's Salo Lewin. The rabbi's office of the Jewish community in Rybnik taken up at the time by cantor Gustaw Hahn[1.28]. In 1922–1939, changes were made regarding the assets owned by the individual Jewish communities in the Silesia province. On 12 May 1922, with the actual partitioning of the Upper Silesia between Poland and Germany approaching, the Katowice Jewish community purchased the building and the adjoining land of the Jewish Orphans' Home from Verband der Synagogengemeinden in Regierungsbezirke Oppeln, and sold it in 1927 to Śląska Izba Rolnicza (Silesian Agricultural Chamber). In 1923, the Israelite Community in Rybnik auctioned and sold two plots of land it came into by devise. On 14 March 1925, the community became the beneficial owner of the property of the disbanded Jewish community in Wodzisław Śląski. In 1931, by order of the police, the Jewish cemetery in Rybnik was closed owing to non-compliance with the sanitary requirements. After that Rybnik's Jews buried their dead on the Jewish cemetery in Wodzisław Śląski[1.29].

In 1927, there were only 154 Jews living in Rybnik, but in the next few years their number increased markedly. In 1931, there were 261 Jews living in the town[1.30].

When in 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany, some of those who emigrated decided to go back to Upper Silesia. The decision to re-emigrate was made following the anti-Semitic persecution in Germany. The number of Jews who returned must have been significant because Urząd Wojewódzki Śląski (the Provincial Office of Silesia) granted a permit for Zwierzchności Gmin Izraelickich w Katowicach (Superior Authority of the Israelite Communities in Katowice) to collect money in support of the Jewish reémigrés. The collection was taken from 1 to 30 June 1933 in all synagogal communities of the Silesian province[1.31]. Soon after, on 12 March 1938 the Third Reich took Austria, in October 1938 the Czech Sudetes, and on 15 March 1939 the entire Czech and Moravian territory. The German Jews who stayed in Upper Silesia feared further territorial claims on Adolf Hitler's part. With the war imminent, there was an exodus of German Jews living in Polish Silesia. As a consequence, in 1938 the population of local Jewish communities began to shrink.

In 1938, the Jewish community in Rybnik was disbanded by the province governor owing to its “insufficiency”[1.32]. In 1939, there were 301 Jews living in Rybnik[1.1.26].

Rybnik fell to the Nazis already in the early days of the Second World War. During the Invasion of Poland, many Jews from Rybnik fled away from the German army on foot, in the direction of Żory and Pszczyna, following the tracks of the withdrawing Polish army. Wehrmacht's motorized troops were determined to chase down the Jewish runaways, many of whom were captured by special units of the German police and then executed by firing squad. Their massacred bodies were left to rot in the roadside ditches near Żory and Pszczyna[1.33]. When the war broke out, the only Jews left in Rybnik were basically the Jewish poor. First, the Nazis arrested Jews who converted to Christianity[1.34]. Then, all other German Jews were put to prison, which was located in the castle. These Jews were initially forced to work under supervision, and later were transferred to the General Government[1.35].

At the end of March and the beginning of April 1940, by the order of Gestapo in Katowice, the Nazi authorities decided to remove the synagogue and Jewish cemetery in Rybnik. The buried were dug out, the graves searched, and the human remains scattered in various parts of the town in order to wipe away any traces of Jews in Rybnik. Some of the exhumed remains were put in a deep hole, covered later with a park pond which has survived to this day. The most valuable headstones, those made of white, pink and black marble, located in the lower section of the cemetery intended for the more prosperous, were handled by prisoners forced by Gestapo officers to load them on trucks which then left for the Reich. The other matzevas were utilised as construction material. They were used to pave ul. Jankowicka and the road leading from the sports stadium to the public swimming pool called Ruda[1.36].

In April 1941, The Germans set up a forced labour camp in the nearby Ornontowice where approximately 750 Poles and Jews were detained. The prisoners worked at a motorway construction site for a company called Christian Krutwig. In June 1942, the camp was closed. All prisoners were transported to other labour camps[1.37].

At the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, an outpost of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was formed in the neighbouring Rydułtowy. The first transport of prisoners arrived there on 19 September 1944 – it was a group of 200 Jews. The second transport arrived on 7 October 1944, with 600–700 Jews. The prisoners were from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece and Romania. They worked in a coal mine. The evacuation of the camp took place on 19 January 1945. The prisoners walked in the Death March to Wodzisław Śląski, from where they were transported in open carriages to the Mauthausen concentration camp[1.38].

Between 17 and 21 January 1945, the evacuation of prisoners from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was carried out. The total of 56 thousand prisoners were evacuated, several thousands of whom marched through Rybnik. The SS men escorting the walking prisoners (each column comprised 500 people) killed the weak and the exhausted who could not keep up with the marching pace. The prisoners were killed merely for stopping to pass water or to adjust their shoes. In order not to worry the local inhabitants with gun fire sounds, the SS men killed their victims by ramming their heads with riffle butts. The columns of prisoners were followed by the so-called execution commando units which finished off the dying prisoners[1.39].
On 22 January 1945, the German escorts shot dead 400 prisoners at the Ruda sports stadium on ul. Gliwicka in Rybnik. Many of them were Jewish. Several hundreds others were shot dead in the forest 150 m away from the Ruda public swimming pool.

During the Death March, on 22-23 January 1945, three Jews – Bronisław Goldman (from Poland), and Eli Heymann and Hans Ausbacher (from Germany) – managed to escape from the column in a nearby village called Wielopole. They were taken in by the family of Regina and Konrad Zimoń and hid in their home until after the war. In 1990, the couple was awarded the title and medal of the Righteous among the Nations[1.40].

List of references:

• Starsi bracia chrześcijan, “Dziennik Zachodni” from 08.03.2002.

• Delowicz J., Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemi rybnicko-wodzisławskiej w latach 1939–1945, “Kroniki Rybnickie” 1983, issue 1.

• Fuchs K., Zur Rolle des schlesischen Judentums bei der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Oberschlesiens, “Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung” 1979.

• Jaworski W., Żydowskie gminy wyznaniowe w województwie śląskim (1922–1939), “Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego” 1993, issue 1/2 (165/166).

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• Trunkhardt A., Dzieje miasta Rybnika i dawniejszego państwa rybnickiego na Górnym Śląsku na podstawie wydanej w 1861 r. kroniki F. Idzikowskiego, Rybnik 1925.

• Walczak J., Rybnik. Zarys dziejów miasta od czasów najdawniejszych do 1980 r., Rybnik 1986.

• Walerjański D., Z dziejów Żydów na Górnym Śląsku do 1812 roku, “Orbis Interior. Pismo muzealno-humanistyczne” 2005, vol. V.