Prior to World War II, the town of Bardejov, Slovakia included a vibrant Jewish community. It served as the epicenter for diverse groups of Jews that contributed their talents and skills to a blossoming integrated town. Estimates suggest that at its peak in the early 20th century, nearly 40% of individuals who lived in the area—both rural and urban residents—were Jewish. Moreover, dozens of businesses and secular social institutions that gave Bardejov its unique flavor and intrigue were founded by these Jewish residents.

However, as is the story of so many places throughout Europe, the Holocaust brought an end to this success story. From 1942-45 more than 3,000 Jews from the Bardejov area alone were deported to various places in occupied Poland, including ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps. As a result of the death and displacement wrought by the war, a mere 250 Jews remained in Bardejov in 1948. Prominent places of worship and Jewish cultural life fell into disrepair or were repurposed by the non-Jewish community.

Today, after nearly three centuries of continuous Jewish presence in Bardejov, there are no Jews living in the town. Their ghosts wander the Jewish Suburbium that has outlived them. As Bardejov renewed itself in the post-war era, it did so without the Jewish chapters of its past.  Modern-day visitors walk by the traces of these lives and this history on a daily basis, but few are aware of the precious heritage that is sealed in brick or buried below the earth. 

The Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee (BJPC) envisions a different possibility. One in which this vibrant Jewish history is no longer ignored but celebrated and honored. This is why, in 2005, the forgotten history of Jewish Bardejov was given a renewed life when Bardejov-born Holocaust survivor Emil Fish returned to his hometown to discover the degradation of places he once knew intimately. Then and there he resolved to restore and preserve these treasured spaces and he founded BJPC the following year.

READ MR. FISH’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE FOUNDING OF BJPC