Today, Gdynia celebrates the 100th anniversary of receiving city rights. Among stories about the port, modernism, and “Poland's window to the world,” the history of the city's Jewish residents rarely appears. And yet it was them – entrepreneurs, engineers, officials, and social activists – who helped shape Gdynia during its period of rapid growth. Their presence was brutally interrupted by the German invasion, war, and the Holocaust.
From a village to a city
As Dr. Jarosław Drozd writes on the Virtual Shtetl portal, the oldest traces of Jewish presence in what is now Gdynia date back to the 19th century and are connected with Chylonia. In 1876, Louis Sternfeld, son of merchant Josef, who had come from Puck, was born there. The life and death of the Sternfeld brothers – victims of German terror – mark the symbolic framework of the Jewish history of the city: from its birth to the tragedy of the Holocaust.
1927 – the beginning
A decisive turning point came after Gdynia was granted city rights and construction of the port began. In May 1935, the Jewish daily newspaper Świt wrote that “the first Jew arrived in Gdynia in 1927”. He was most likely an entrepreneur or industrialist, as it was then that the first companies with Jewish capital began to operate. The first Jew to register as a permanent resident was engineer Leon Allweil, a colleague of Tadeusz Wenda.
A period of prosperity
Although the community was initially small, it grew rapidly in the 1930s. Jews played an important role in trade, industry, and port services. Religious and social institutions were established, the Commission for the Fulfilment of the Tasks of the Jewish Religious Community was active, and religious education and vocational courses, including fishing courses, were organized. In 1937, the residents of Gdynia took over the actual management of the district community, and its seat was moved to Gdynia.
The destruction of the community
September 1939 marked the end of this world. After the German invasion, Jews were arrested, beaten, and robbed, sent to camps in Redłowo and Grabówek, and then to Stutthof and other places of execution. Some were murdered on the spot or in executions in Piaśnica. Almost the entire community, which just a few years earlier had helped build the economic and social foundation of the city, disappeared. After the war, only 33 people of Jewish origin returned to Gdynia. Less than a decade earlier, in 1938, the Jewish community in this coastal city numbered about 4,500 people. On the centenary of Gdynia, this story remains one of the most dramatic and, at the same time, least known chapters in the city's history.
Contemporary Jewish life
Although no large independent religious community was reestablished in Gdynia after the war, contemporary Jewish life in the region has not disappeared completely. The Tri-City is home to Beit Trójmiasto, a progressive Jewish community that organizes regular Shabbat meetings, holiday celebrations, and cultural events for local residents and supporters of Judaism.
In Gdynia itself, there is also the Jewish Messianic Community “Mishpacha,” which meets regularly, conducting religious and social activities for those interested in the community.
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Heschel Center News, Karol Darmoros