Between return and sovietization: the struggle of the Berehove jewish community for the Great synagogue (1945–1969)

Abstract

The aim of the article was to present, in chronological order and from a historical perspective, the Israelite religious community of Berehove, whose members constituted one third of the town’s population up until the mid-twentieth century. Consequently, they made significant contributions to Berehove’s economic, cultural, and public life. In this study, we explore the period from the end of the Second World War up to the loss of the community’s Great Synagogue, examining the process on a historical plane. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific and specific historical methods. Given the limited scholarly coverage of the topic, we conducted primary source research, drawing on unpublished archival documents, the recollections of former Jewish residents of the town, as well as contemporary press reports used as control sources. The scholarly novelty of this work lies in the fact that that question – approached from this perspective and for this particular period – has not previously been examined in either domestic or international historiography. Therefore, we contend that our study fills an existing gap. Conclusions. It can be established that although more than six thousand Jewish inhabitants of Berehove were deported during the Second World War and the Holocaust, the Jewish community did not disappear from the town. This is evidenced by the registration of the Berehove Israelite Orthodox Community in the spring of 1945, in accordance with Soviet expectations, and by the efforts of returnees to reclaim their houses, apartments, and personal property. The new authorities, however, often looked upon the survivors returning from the death camps with distrust, seemingly uneasy about their presence, as families resettled from the Verkhovyna highlands had been placed in their formerly abandoned homes after 1944. Nevertheless, the Israelite community sought solutions, driven by the determination to rebuild their lives. Our research also reveals how the nearly two-thousand-strong Jewish community struggled to regain its religious buildings. Of particular significance is their admirable fight for the Great Synagogue located in the town centre, then the last cultic site in Transcarpathia still functioning according to its original religious purpose. Finally, we trace when and under what circumstances the Great Synagogue of Berehove came into the possession of the Soviet state, and what became of it after it lost its original function.