80 Years Since the Liquidation of the Community of Brody

80 years ago, on the day before Lag BaOmer 5703 (1943), the Brody Ghetto was liquidated, and thus came the end of the great and famous city that was affectionately known as “Brod”.

For hundreds of years the city of Brod lived and bustled, which in its glory days had an absolute Jewish majority (close to ninety percent of the city, before the First World War). In the year 5665 (1905), it had twenty-four Talmud Torah schools, and several yeshivas and charitable organizations that were there for the glory of all of Galicia. Among the charitable organizations that were already active in Brod in the 19th century, were the hospital, an old people’s home, a benevolent benefit fund, a soup kitchen, a scholarship fund for youth, an orphanage, the “Kindness and Truth” association for the support of the sick, the “Widow Supporters” society, a society for clothing school children and providing free textbooks, and more. And there were also special cases. In 1830, there was a cholera epidemic in which many perished, and as a result, a “Society for the Treatment of Poor Orphans” was founded, and in 1867 there was a great fire in the city and community institutions took care of people whose houses were burned down.

The community of Brod was well known for its famous “Kloiz”, where the great Torah scholar sat, and its name is still famous today as a symbol of diligence and genius.

The genius, the Noda B’Yehuda, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, who himself was one of the scholars of the Kloiz in his youth, wrote to his son:

“I was pleased that we would connect with the dozen or so residents of the Kloiz in Brod, who laboured in the Torah and gave their rulings.”

His son, Rabbi Yaakovka Landau also wrote:

“At that time, this city was an enclave of beauty full of sages and scribes, from which came instruction to all the People of Israel, for hundreds of geniuses of the land came forth from this study house, and the land was full of knowledge, a city of righteousness will rest there.”

The sages of the Kloiz were also known for their power in Kabbala and the mysteries of the Torah. Among the famous names of the Kloiz are the genius, Rabbi Chaim Tzanzer (the first), Rabbi Gershon Makitov, Rabbi Ephraim Margaliot, Rabbi Yitzchak Medrohowitz and his son Rabbi Michal of Zlotszow, Rabbi Meshulam Igra, and many more.

The Kloiz building, which was built as a fortress, was partially destroyed in the Holocaust and was declared designated for preservation by the government.

Even in later times, the great men of the city of Brod were known throughout the world as the geniuses of the generation. The genius, Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, whose teachings are still taught in study halls with admiration, also lived and worked in the city of Brod.

Of all the tens of thousands of Jews in Brody, the big and beautiful, pleasant and deeply rooted city, only 250 people survived. Most of the city’s residents were brutally murdered during the years of Nazi rule over the city, and especially when it was liquidated on Iyar 17 5703 (May 22, 1943). Today, unfortunately, there is no Jewish community in this city, and all that remains of it are the memories and the words of Torah of the great minds, which are studied carefully and in depth in yeshiva halls.

There are almost no remains of this magnificent city left; we present some photos from the city of Brody from the archives of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem.