The Shtetls

( If you were reading "Yosef's blanket" click Yosef to go back)

The Shtetls (pro: sh-tet-els) were the towns in which most of the central and eastern European Jewish people lived.

The word comes from the Yiddish SHTOT which means town.

Though there were shtetls in central Europe most of them were in what was called THE PALE.

 

 

Sometimes the word SHTETL is extended to refer to the Jewish tradition life as it was lived through the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the people were orthodox, which means they were very religious, following many of the rules of Judiaism (Jewish tradition). They followed
a very strict and unchanging traditional way of life. That means they lived according to the social customs developed over the centuries in Jewish communities.

 

 

 

This is a picture of Suzie-Jean's great-aunt
with her son. The picture was taken
in front of their wooden house during the
early 20th century.

 

There were always many legal restrictions placed upon Jews regarding what they could do and could not do. The Jewish people also put restrictions on themselves through traditions.

The Jewish population in the Shtetls werealways at risk. There were many pogroms( military attacks on the Jewish people in the shtetls.)

 

During the Holocaust, most of the Jewish people living in the shtetls were sent to concentration camps or rounded up and executed by the Nazi SS killing squads called the
Einsatzgruppen. Upwards of 80% of the Jewish people still living in Poland, Lithuania and other areas of Eastern Europe were killed during this tragic period.

The Shtetls as Jewish towns, therefore, no longer existed after World War II. These towns still exist but have very few if any Jewish people living there.