Saturday 4 June 2022

Abraham Rosenberg

Abraham Rosenberg is my 3x great uncle. Rosenberg family tree Here

Parents: Samuel Rosenberg and Leah

Born: Unknown date in Valkevish, Suwalki Province, Russia (now Vilkaviškis in south-western Lithuania)

Hebrew name: Avraham 

Married: Rachel in Russia some time before 1851

Children
Death
Some time before 1875 in Valkevish, Suwalki Province, Russia (now Vilkaviškis in south-western Lithuania)

Place of Birth
Abraham Rosenberg was born Vilkaviškis in south-western Lithuania

It is a city in southwestern Lithuania. It is located 25 km (16 mi) northwest from Marijampolė, on a bank of Šeimena River. The city got its name from the Vilkauja River, a tributary to Šeimena. Until 1941 the city had a large Jewish Community which was annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators. The whole Jewish population was killed in a single day after the entry of the Germans into the city.

The town was granted city rights in 1670 by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jan Kazimierz, which was one of the first times such privileges were granted to a place in Lithuania. The coat of arms of the town was most likely borrowed from the Pac family, as the owner of the village at the time, Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac, was also the Chancellor of Lithuania.

It remained in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 when, in the First Partition of Poland it became part of Kingdom of Prussia (the region in which the town is located was split between Prussia and Russia) until 1807. At this time the town was incorporated into the Duchy of Warsaw and merged into the Białystok region. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 the region switched hands again and became part of Russia, and then Congress Poland, as part of the Augustów, and later Suwałki, district.

According to tradition, Jews were living in this area in the 14th century and a synagogue was built at the beginning of the 16th. By the 19th century a flourishing Jewish community had developed. Between 1823 and 1862 no new Jews were permitted to settle in Vilkaviškis, which was near the border with Germany, under the czarist legislation restricting Jewish settlement in border towns. Nevertheless, the community numbered 4,417 in 1856 (as against 834 Christians), 3,480 in 1897 (60% of the total population), 3,206 in 1923 (44%), and 3,609 in 1939 (45%). The majority were occupied in commerce and crafts. Some derived their livelihood from agriculture and garden plots close to the town. The sizable brushmaking industry in Vilkaviškis was predominantly Jewish and employed hundreds of Jewish workers.

Synagogue in Vilkaviškis