Opole Lubelskie
OPOLE LUBELSKIE
OPOLE LUBELSKIE , small town in Lublin province, S.E. Poland. A silver merchant named Manasseh is known to have resided in Opole in 1626 and carried on business there. The administration of the Opole community came under the jurisdiction of the Lublin kahal (see *Councils of the Lands). There were 487 Jews living in Opole in 1765. The community increased substantially during the 19th century, numbering 1,799 in 1856 (nearly twice the number of gentiles), and 3,323 in 1897 (60.1% of the total). The Jewish population numbered 3,766 in 1921 (66.7%).
[Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)]
Holocaust Period
About 4,000 Jews were living in Opole Lubelskie on the eve of World War ii. The number was more than doubled when about 2,500 Jews from Pulawy and over 2,000 Jews from Vienna were deported there in December 1939 and February 1941, respectively. In May 1942 an additional few hundred Jews from nearby smaller places and Slovakia were brought to the town. Jews were deported from Opole to death camps on three occasions: on March 31, 1942, to Belzec, and in May and October 1942 to Sobibor. The community was not revived after the war.
[Stefan Krakowski]
bibliography:
T. Brustin-Bernstein, in: Bleter far Geshikhte, 3:1–2 (1950), 51–78, passim; Yad Vashem Archives.