Editing Włocławek (section)

===The Jewish Community in Włocławek===
[[File:Wloclawek Ghetto memorial.jpg|thumb|Memorial at the site of the former World War II ghetto]]
The Jewish population increased from 218 (6.6%) in 1820 to 6,919 in 1910 (20.5%) and 13,500 in 1939. One of the founders of the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizracḥi]] movement, rabbi Leib Kowalski (1895–1925), lived and worked in Włocławek. During the interbellum period, the town had several Jewish schools (primary and high schools), two yeshivas, and three Jewish sports clubs.<ref name="yivo">[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/W%C5%82oc%C5%82awek Włocławek]. "The YIVO Encyclopedia. Jews in Eastern Europe". Retrieved 12 March 2015</ref>

With the beginning of the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–45)|German occupation of Poland]], Włocławek became the first town in Europe in which Jews were required to wear distinctive [[yellow badge]]s.<ref>"[https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008211 Jewish Badge: During the Nazi Era]". [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]. ushmm.org. Retrieved 3 May 2017.</ref> Murders of Jews began in 1939 and the Włocławek [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|ghetto]] was created in November 1940. The Nazis deported 3,000 of Włocławek's Jews to ghettos and labor camps between December 1939 and June 1941. Some 2,000 Jews were deported to [[Łódź]] and then to the [[Chełmno extermination camp]] between 26 and 30 September 1941. The ghetto was burnt in late April 1942 after the remaining Jews were sent to Chelmno where they were immediately gassed.<ref name="yivo"/> Most of the Jews sent to the [[Łódź Ghetto]] died of starvation or illness, and many were sent to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] from Łódź.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Megargee |first1=Geoffrey |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos |date=2012 |publisher=University of Indiana Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=978-0-253-35599-7 |page=Volume II 118–119}}</ref>

After the war nearly 1000 Jews returned to Włocławek and re-established their community. However, Jews left after disputes within the community itself, and the desire of most Jews not to live under Communism, installed by the Soviets.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wloclawek |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/W%C5%82oc%C5%82awek |website=YIVO Encyclopedia of Eastern European Jews |publisher=YIVO}}</ref> By the late 1960s, the community had disappeared.

Today there is only very little, if any trace at all, of their once rich and lively community. There is a table for victims of Jewish ghetto in Włocławek's Rakutówek neighborhood (Polish Tablica Ofiar Getta we Włocławku) and Jewish Cemetery at Municipal/Communal Cemetery (Polish Cmentarz Komunalny we Włocławku).