Memorial Book to the Holocaust Victims of the City of Pshaytsh

Przedecz located in central Poland had a vibrant Jewish communityfor some 600 years starting at the end of the 14th century. InYiddish the city was known as Pshaytsh; in Hebrew Pshedetz.Most Jews worked as tradesmen artisans merchants and small traders.The community supported a synagogue a bet midrash a mikva Jewishschools a Yeshiva a bikkur cholim society caring for the sick and a benevolentfund which granted interest-free loans. The town had a Jewish librarywhere people could meet to read books attend dances hear lectures andsee theatrical performances.Nazis occupied the town in October 1939. Changing the town's name toMoosburg they burned the Synagogue and began the persecution andkilling of Jews. Nearly half were sent to forcedlabor camps where most of them died of hungerand disease. In Przedecz Jews were forcedto live in a ghetto under horrific conditions.In early 1942 they were packed into the localchurch and left for three days without food orwater. On April 24 1942 the remaining Jewswere sent to the Chelmno death camp.As the Editors wrote: This book is meant asa memorial and yahrzeit candle... revealingevents and deeds in the lives of our dear ones up to the years of the Holocaust