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
- Kretinga
History
- 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 - 2009 John S. Jaffer
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