Brick manufactured by the Czeke brick factory in Kőszeg
Brick manufactured by the Czeke Brick Factory in Kőszeg, Hungary. Jewish residency in the town began in the 14th century and continued for five hundred years. From 1919 to 1921, Jews in Kőszeg and throughout Hungary were targeted by the White Terror pogroms for their perceived association with communism. Leading up to World War II, the Jewish population in the town was approximately one hundred people. In December 1940, a forced labor camp was established with Jewish and non-Jewish workers at a brick field and an old brewery in the town. The camp housed eight thousand laborers who were forced to march ten kilometers to and from work. They worked ten hour days, seven days a week, with only a daily ration of 17 ounces of bread. In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary and the Jews of Kőszeg along with other Jews from the surrounding area were confined to a small ghetto in the town. On July 4, they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German occupied Poland. In March 1945, the Germans liquidated the labor camp. As part of the liquidation, ninety five sick laborers were locked in a sealed barrack and gassed to death on the property of Kőszeg Varosi Teglagyàr (Kőszeg Urban Brickworks), another local brick factory. In 1985, a park and a memorial were erected on the property of the former brick factory where the execution took place.
overall: Height: 2.750 inches (6.985 cm) | Width: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm) | Depth: 4.625 inches (11.748 cm)
The brick was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017 by Dr. József Ràbai.
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Rectangular light gray colored clay brick with a porous surface and rounded edges. The top has the manufacture’s mark impressed into the surface and several black dots on the left side. There is slight white discoloration on the left, top, and back sides. The bottom is heavily pitted and has several small cracks.