Kisné Cseh Julianna (szerk.): Tatabányai Múzeum 2015-2016 - Tatabányai Múzeum Évkönyve 4. (Tatabánya, 2016)
Simonik Péter: A zsidóság gazdasági és társadalmi szerepvállalása Tatabánya elődközségeiben a 20. század első felében
A zsidóság gazdasági és társadalmi szerepvállalása Tatabánya elődközségeiben a 20. század első felében 123 Economic and social engagement of the Jewish community in Tatabányai predecessor settlements in the first half of the 20th century Simonik, Péter In our articles published in recent years, we have studied the history of Jewish community living in Tatabányás predecessor villages (Alsógalla, Bánhi- da, Felsőgalla, Tatabánya) from different perspectives. After processing the information of public and church records, we got some insight into the local Jewish community’s everyday life, as well. This study discusses the economic and social engagement of the Jewish community living in Tatabányai predecessor settlements. Our main goal was to find an answer to following question: arriving at different times, how did the Jewish residents of Tatabánya manage to fit in the local society? We discuss their story from the arrival of the first Jewish families (18th century) until 1944. The landholders allowed only a couple families to settle down in the previously undercrowded, but later - due to the Eszterházys’ settlement policies - repopulated area of Alsógalla, Bánhida and Felsőgalla, thus the number of these families living in Tatabányás predecessor villages remained almost unchanged until the second half of the 19th century. A significant change took place in the life of the comitatus during the 1840s. A noticeably intensified migration process started after providing Jews with the right to freedom of movement. According to Conscriptio Judeaorum (1848), Márkus Schaiber’s family in Bánhida, and Ábrahám Nobel’s and Ferenc Nobl’s families in Felsőgalla were the only Jews living in these villages, however, according to the results of a population census 20 years later, 38 Jewish people were living in the predecessor settlements. A significant growth of the Jewish population started at the turn of the century, when 99 members of their community were living in Alsógalla, Felsőgalla and Bánhida. In 1910, the local Jewish population consisted of 300 people. Coal mining started in 1896, and it has fundamentally changed the life of these three agricultural settlements. After a few decades, the population of these villages (along with a new settlement called Tatabánya, founded in 1902) grew from thousands to almost 30.000 by 1920, and in parallel with this, the number of the local Jews changed, too. While the number of the total population increased eightfold between 1880 and 1920, the number of the Jewish population increased twelvefold. Felsőgalla was that predecessor village, where the number of the local Jews increased steadily between 1900 and 1930, reaching 192 in 1930. Based on the data available, almost half (49%) of the industrialists and traders in our study (between 1887 and 1948) asked for and received permission between 1921 and 1940 to start a business or to expand the existing ones. Most of the traders who carried out commercial activities in these four settlements were running businesses like clothing stores and textile shops (76) or grocery and variety stores (69). In addition to this, there were some stores selling consumer goods like home furnishing items, household products or technical articles (15), and stores selling fresh vegetables, fruits or eggs (17). Thanks to their economic performances, a lot of Jewish industrialists and traders living in Tatabányai predecessor villages could join the local public life and/or the public life of the comitatus. We often see their names among the highest tax payers (viriles), and partially the same names appear in the list of leading officers of different advocacy, cultural and recreational organizations in Alsógalla, Felsőgalla, Bánhida and Tatabánya. The fact that a significant number of the leaders of these settlements’ social organizations were Jewish can be considered as a clear sign of social appreciation. In the first half of the 1940s, several laws were introduced to weaken the economic role of the Jewish community. Because of these regulations, Jewish industrialists, traders and farmers living in the predecessor villages were pushed increasingly into the background. The events of the year 1944 resulted in an economic and social marginalization of the group, only a few of the survivors of the deportations restarted their businesses and industrial activities.
