Čakovec Synagogue

La comunità ebraica

Jews first settled in Čakovec in the early eighteenth century; the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) records four Jewish families in the town in 1740. An old Jewish cemetery in the centre of the town was used for burials from 1794 until 1927, when its gravestones were moved to a Jewish section of the new municipal cemetery opened in 1897. The community built its synagogue in 1836, a Jewish school in 1860 and a ceremonial hall at the cemetery in 1891. ESJF gives 431 Jews in 1880, and 188 members of the community served in the First World War, of whom 17 were killed. Figures compiled by Srdjan Matić for the JewishGen Cemetery Discovery Project give 800 Jews in 1925-26, 860 in 1930, 605 in 1931, 505 in 1937-38 and 555 in 1941. Before the Second World War about 500 Jews lived in the town itself, and about 1,200 in the whole of Međimurje according to the present head of the Čakovec Jewish community. The community, founded in the eighteenth century, still exists today as a small congregation.

Architettura e design

No plan, drawing or description of the building from its own time was found in this research, and no photograph could be obtained. What is known comes from Zlatko Karač's summary of the surviving photographs, published in the 1998 jubilee volume of the Zagreb Jewish community. According to him the synagogue was a building of two storeys, a ground floor and one upper floor, with narrow windows that ended in semicircular arches. The arrangement of the windows suggests a central prayer hall with a women's gallery along the western side. The building was altered in 1876, and at the same time the complex was enlarged with other buildings. Oto Konstein's memories add the setting: the synagogue stood free in the middle of a large courtyard, set back behind two street buildings, the community house with its large rooms and festival hall and the residence of the rabbi and the president. The architect, the builder, the seating capacity, the style of the 1876 alterations and the interior fittings are unknown.

La vita nella sinagoga

The fullest account of worship in the synagogue found in this research comes from Oto Konstein, who grew up in Čakovec and was interviewed by Centropa. He remembered the synagogue, which the congregation called 'the temple', as always full, because the Jews of the town attended services regularly. The community employed two religious professionals, a rabbi and a cantor. In Konstein's youth the rabbi was Dr. Ilija Grünwald, while the cantor is not named. Konstein believed that only the rabbi, the cantor and a few other families kept kosher, and he recalled that there was no ritual bath in Čakovec. Festivals and other gatherings were held in the large hall of the community building in front of the synagogue. The community president in his time was Dr. Schwarz. A memorial book of the community, Megilat ha-shoa shel kehilat kodesh Cakovec (Tel Aviv, 1977), has chapters on the building of the synagogue, on the synagogue and its courtyard, and on Rabbi Dr. A. Greenwald, but only its table of contents could be read.

Distruzione

The sources disagree about when and by whom the synagogue was destroyed. The memorial erected on the site on 25 May 1997, as reported by the Croatian news agency Hina, states that the synagogue stood until Hungarian occupation forces tore it down in April 1944; a second Hina report quotes the inscription as saying it was destroyed by the Hungarians in 1944, when Međimurje was under Hungarian occupation. The hr.wikipedia summary of Zlatko Karač's work gives May 1944. That timing coincides with the deportation of the congregation, after which the building stood empty. The US Commission's 2005 report on Jewish heritage sites in Croatia, drawing on the CJA and on Srdjan Matić, says instead that the synagogue was damaged during the Second World War and demolished after 1945, and the JewishGen Cemetery Discovery Project, citing Matić and the land registry, says it was damaged in 1944, demolished after 1945, and that the plot, folder 43, plot 90/1, was confiscated in 1959. It is therefore possible that the Hungarian authorities wrecked or partly pulled down the building in 1944 and that its remains were cleared after the war; who carried out any postwar demolition is not recorded in the sources read.

Il destino della comunità

During the Second World War Međimurje, Čakovec included, was under Hungarian occupation; the community's memorial book has chapters on the Hungarian occupation, on racist decrees, on the arrest of young people and on their mobilisation into labour camps. After the Nazi German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, the Jews of the region were deported. ESJF records that 605 Jews from the area were sent to concentration camps and ghettos and that 430 Jews of Čakovec were murdered in Auschwitz and other camps; the memorial book has a chapter titled 'Čakovec Day in Auschwitz'. The present head of the community has said that about 700 of the roughly 1,200 Jews of Međimurje were killed or went missing during the war. More recently, Stolpersteine for 28 members of the community were laid at six places in Čakovec and two in Prelog, among them one for the chief rabbi, Dr. Ilija Grünwald, in front of the synagogue memorial. Only 83 Jews were living in Čakovec after the war, 98 in 1947, and 24 in 1994. The small community continues, and the Jewish section of the town cemetery is maintained by it and the town.

Il luogo oggi

The synagogue stood in the centre of Čakovec, in a courtyard behind the community building, but its exact street address was not found in the sources read; the land registry reference given by JewishGen is plot 90/1. After the confiscation of 1959 the plot passed into public ownership. A memorial with an inscription in Croatian and Hebrew was erected on the site in 1997, and Stolpersteine have since been laid in front of it. The map pin for this entry is a placeholder at the centre of the town of Čakovec and does not mark the plot. Identifying the plot, and checking whether any part of the courtyard buildings survives, would require the Čakovec land registry or the local museum, Muzej Međimurja Čakovec.

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