Hello Alastair,

You can look at this web page:

http://www.tydecks.info/online/pers_memel_hist_engl.html

Here is an excerpt of this page:

*******************************************************

Jewish Settlement

Prior to 1700, Jewish people were fleeing their persecutions in Spain and Portugal. They came to the Netherlands, then Germany and after many pogroms like in Cologne and Worms, they continued eastward. The Lithuanian city of Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of the east. Only during the best times of the enlightenment [13] with the Proclamation of People's Rights and Peace was there hope that Jews would be treated as equals.

In the Memel region there were relatively few Jews. In 1875, 700 out of the 1000 Jews in Memel had left after Bismarck expelled those not taking German citizen ship. In 1925 there were 5,000 Jews in the City of Memel and in 1938, 9,000. Jewish communities existed in Heydekrug and Rusne. There were no Jews in the rural areas.

*********************************************************

Kind regards,

Georg