History of Pultusk

As a result of the Invasion of Poland in 1939 it was incorporated into Nazi Germany; from 1941-1945 it was known in German as Ostenburg. During the German occupation approximately 50% of the city's inhabitants were killed or forcibly deported.[1]. In the battle for Pułtusk during World War II over 16,000 soldiers of the Soviet Red Army fell. As a result of the battle approximately 85% of the city was destroyed.

There was also a strong Jewish presence in Pułtusk before the Holocaust. The first Jews here settled in the 15th century, but the community only started to flourish in the 19th century. At the start of the 19th century, only about 120 Jews lived in the city. Throughout that century, though, the Jewish population increased rapidly to nearly 7,000 in the mid-19th century. By the year 1900, around 6,000 called Pułtusk home, but the population had been decreasing because of factors such as World War I, which caused many to migrate to nearby Warsaw. Following the war, the pre-Holocaust population rose to about 8,300 accounting for roughly half of the total population of the town. On September 7, 1939, the city became under the control of Nazi Germany. The Jews were deported to the Soviet Union and eventually made their way to the Soviet Interior. Descendants of Pułtusk Jewry are now found mainly in Israel, the United States, Canada, and Argentina