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by Aryeh Shtuntsayger (Editor), Jonathan Wind (Prepared by), Rachel Kolokoff-Hopper (Cover Design by)
Krasnystaw lies in southeast Poland a little over 30 miles from Lublin. The town was not large, compared with nearby "sister cities" like Chelm but it differed from them in the proportion of Jews in the population, which was smaller than the others.
Krasnystaw was one of the oldest towns to be settled in Poland but Jews were banned from residing there between 1554 and 1862, although Jewish merchants were frequent visitors. There were only 11 Jews living there in 1827 out of a population of 3,007 and 151 in 1857 out of a total population of 3,614. Later, when the ban was no longer in effect, the number of Jews grew to 1,754 in 1921, but were still a small portion of the total population.
The town was known for its beauty and cleanliness. The houses in its center were built of stone, painted in light colors. The buildings were one or two stories high; the streets were level, finely paved, and had wide sidewalks. But there was a poor part of the town, Groblie, whose residents included shoemakers, tailors, bakers, glaziers, ironsmiths, and wholesale buyers of farm produce.
The community had traditional and welfare institutions, public libraries and drama group, Zionist parties and youth movements. Children attended a Heder, Talmud Torah and a government school.
In August 1939, there were approximately 10,000 inhabitants which included about 2,500 Jews. The invading German army reached Krasnystaw in September. The battle for the town lasted three hours. A ghetto was established in 1940 and liquidated in 1942, when most of the Jews were sent to the Belzec death camp. The only Krasnystaw survivors were those who left before the Germans took control of the town, or immediately after their arrival. The book has lists of Jews who were murdered as well as those who survived.
