ShtetLinks: Gargzdai (Gorzd), Lithuania
Gorzd in the 1930's
Photograph courtesy of George Birman
Names
| Name |
Language |
Name in Native Alphabet
(Newer Browsers Only) |
| Gargzdai |
Lithuanian |
Gargždai |
| Gorzd; Gorsd; Gorzhd |
Yiddish |
גורזד
or
גארזד |
| Gorzhdy |
Russian |
Горжды (traditional)
or
Гаргждай (modern) |
| Garsden |
German |
Garsden |
| Gorzdy |
Polish |
Gorżdy |
- Other variants include Gorszdy; Gorjdy; Gorshdy; Gorshedy; Gorsdy; Gorsdi
View GARGZDAI via MapQuest
(Latitude 55°43´, Longitude 21°24´)
(Click your browser's "Back" button to return here.)
Gargzdai should not be confused with two Lithuanian towns with similar
names:
- Gardamas
(Lat. 55°24´, Long. 21°40´ - also called "Gordom" or German name
"Garden")
- Gruzdziai
(Lat. 56°06´, Long. 23°16´ - also called "Gruzdi," "Grusdi" or
"Gruzd")
Location
 |
 |
| Andrees Handatlas (1881) |
Andrees Handatlas (1893) |
Gargzdai is located about 11 miles east of the Baltic port of Klaipeda,
Lithuania (formerly known as Memel, Germany). It lies on a river called "Minija"
in Lithuanian, and "Minge" in German. Before World War I, Gargzdai was in
Russia, Kovno Gubernia (province), Telsiai Uyezd (district), just east of the
border with Germany. The area to the west of the border was part of the German
province of East Prussia. Prussia had become part of the German Empire in 1871.
Following World War I, Lithuania became an independent country. In 1923,
Lithuania obtained the strip of land between Gargzdai and the Baltic, and south
to the Nemunas River (known in German as the Russ River and Memel River, and in
Russian as the Niemen). This strip, which included the city of Memel, was
sometimes known as the Memel Territory. It was also the northern part of the area sometimes called Lithuania Minor.
The city of Memel was renamed Klaipeda
at the time it became part of Lithuania. Germany seized the Memel Territory in 1939, and
Klaipeda again became Memel. The Soviet Union annexed the remaining part of
Lithuania in 1940, so the border between the Soviet Union and Germany again ran
just west of Gargzdai. As a consequence, Gargzdai was among the first towns
invaded when Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
Following World War II, Memel was again renamed Klaipeda. Both Gargzdai and
Klaipeda were inside the Soviet Union, and as a result of Lithuania's
independence in 1990 are now part of Lithuania.
Maps
Town Plan by George Birman
- George Birman's Plan showing streets, residences and businesses during the 1930's
- For town plan, click here.
Photographs of George Birman
Photographs - 2001
Aerial Photograph
Postcards
Books on JewishGen
Posted as part of the Yizkor Book Project. Use your
browser's "Back" button to return here.
- Lite
(M. Sudarsky et al., eds., N.Y. 1951)
Telephone Book, 1940
Newspaper Articles
- Hamagid - January 10, 1872 (No. 2) (list of 90 donors)
- HaMelitz - July 30 [August 11], 1893 (No. 171)
- HaMelitz - August 24 [September 5], 1893 (No. 192)
- HaMelitz - November 7 [19], 1894 (No. 245)
- HaMelitz - March 9 [21], 1895 (No. 57)
- HaMelitz - March 16 [28], 1895 (No. 63)
- HaMelitz - November 12 [24], 1895 (No.247)
- HaMelitz - June 12 [24], 1897 (No. 130)
- HaMelitz - September 23 [October 5], 1898 (No. 209)
- HaMelitz - May 30 [June 12], 1903 (No.120)
Memories of Gorzd
Holocaust
Searchable Databases on JewishGen
Search for entries about Gargzdai or Gorzd in the following databases
on JewishGen. After searching, click your browser's "Back" button to return
here. Under "type of search," use Daitch - Mokotoff Soundex rather than Exact Spelling. This will pick up
entries listed under variant spellings such as Gargzdiai rather than Gargzdai.
- LitvakSIG All Lithuania Database (ALD)
(About the ALD)
The ALD contains Gargzdai records in:
- JewishGen Lithuania Database
- JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF) (About the JGFF)
- JewishGen Discussion Group Archives
(About the JewishGen Discussion Group)
- JewishGen Special Interest Group (SIG) Mailing Lists Archives
(About the SIG Mailing Lists)
- Passenger List Databases
(About the Ellis Island Database)
Note: Gorzd often appears in the Ellis Island records under its German name "Garsden," but there are numerous non-standard spellings (for example Gazdin, Gasden and Gorst).
Town names in the Hamburg Passenger Lists include Gadsden, Garsd, Garsden, Garsdi, Garsdy, Garzd, Garzden, Garzdy, Gazdin, Gorsd, Gorsden, Gorsdy, Gorst, Gorszdy, Gorzd, Gorzdy, and Grozd.
Other Sources of Information
- LitvakSIG (About LitvakSIG)
- Exposition and Lectures in Ulm, Germany during 2008 commemorating 50th anniversary of Einsatzgruppen Trials. See especially presentation of May 6, 2008, by Dr. Christoph Dieckmann, regarding Einsatzkommando Tilsit.
- Records from Gargzdai are available which have not yet been incorporated in the ALD.
These may be obtained by joining the Telsiai Uyezd Group at LitvakSIG. Contact Deena Berton, Telsiai Uyezd Coordinator. Joining the group provides financial support for ongoing translation of records.
(About the Telsiai SIG Research Group of LitvakSIG)
- Y. Alperovitz, Ed., Sefer Gorzd (Tel Aviv: Gorzd Society of Israel, 1980), NYPL: *PXV (Gargzdai) 88-463. This Gorzd Memorial Book is posted online by the New York Public Library. The JewishGen Yizkor site lists libraries where this book may be viewed;
in addition, it may be available at public libraries by interlibrary loan. If you are interested in assisting the JewishGen project to make a translation of the entire Book available online, please contact JewishGen's Yizkor Book Project Manager
Joyce Field.
- Janina Valanciute, Gargzdu miesto ir parapijos istorija, Vilnius: Diemedzio Leidykla, 1998
(ISBN 9986-23-047-0). A history of Gargzdai. In Lithuanian, with summaries in English and German. Many photographs. May be available from Gargzdai Tourist Office.
- Kestutis Demereckas and Ruta Cirtautaite, Gargzdai, Klaipeda: Libra Memelensis, 2003 (ISBN 9955-544-12-0). In Lithuanian and English.
Introduction by Janina Valanciute. Includes many historic photographs not available elsewhere, as well as modern photographs.
- Gargzdai Area Museum
- Jewish History in East Prussia. Site by Dr. Ruth Leiserowitz, in German and English. Includes information
about emigration from Lithuania to East Prussia. Records of Jewish Families in Memel include families with Gargzdai connections.
For an article about Dr. Leiserowitz' location of Memel records, see Howard Margol, "Memel Archives Records Located," Avotaynu, Volume IX, No. 1, Spring 2003, p. 19.
- Once Memel - Klaipeda Now. Site about the history of Memel/Klaipeda.
Includes City Directories for Memel for 1858, 1866, 1898, 1909, 1915, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1935 and 1942; and for Memelgebiet (Memel Territory), 1922.
- ShtetLinks sites for nearby towns
- Lietuva zemelapiuose - Lithuania on the Map - Catalog of Exhibition at National Museum of
Lithuaia (1999) (ISBN 9955-415-01-0); reprinted 2002 (ISBN 9955-415-24-X). Color photographs of maps of Lithuania. Descriptions in Lithuanian and English.
- Anatolij Chayesh, Box-Tax Paperwork Records as a Source
of Information about the Life of Jewish Communities and their Personal Structure, posted at the Online Jounal of LitvakSIG.
Several references to Gargzdai (Gorzhdy), including fire of August 25, 1895 (in Addendum 1).
- Herman Rosenthal, Courland,
article from Jewish Encyclopedia (1916) posted on JewishGen. Reference to Charter of 1639 granting
rights to the Jews of Polangen and Gorzhd.
- Yehudat Lita (Lithuanian Jewry: Its History in Pictures) (Jerusalem: Moss Harav Kook, 1959). Pictures of "Gruzd," p. 167. These pictures of Market St. and the cemetery
appear in less clear versions in the Gorzd Memorial Book, on pages 48 [Image 453] and 78 [Image 423] (English section), and page 36 [Image 40] (Hebrew/Yiddish section). Note: these photos appear in the Siauliai section of Yehudat Lita , and
may indicate conflation of the towns Gruzdziai (n. of Siauliai) and Gorzd. For further information about the old cemetery photograph, click here.
Gargzdai Information on Other Websites
- Click here for links to photos of Gargzdai, and information about Gargzdai available on other websites.
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Updated by JSJ - April 4, 2008
Copyright (c) 2002 - 2007
John S. Jaffer |
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