Birnbaum

In the 15th century, the first Jews here settled in Pultusk.
The Jewish community began to flourish in the 19th century.
At the start of the 1800s, only about 120 Jews lived in the city.
Throughout that century, though, the Jewish population increased rapidy to nearly 7,000 in the mid-1800s.

In 1939, the Germans Invaded Poland, and Pultusk 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. In the battle for Pułtusk, over 16,000 soldiers of the Soviet Red Army fell, and approximately 85% of the city was destroyed.