Jewish Klaipėda

Jews were first mentioned as living in the city in 1567, although much the same as with the remarkably similar city of Gdańsk, the Jews never made an enormous impact on Klaipėda as they did in the rest of the region. By the time the Germans re-occupied the city in March 1939 some 8,000 Jews had already fled, leaving a small population behind who met their fate as is only too well known. An estimated 200 or so Jews live in Klaipėda today.