Lublin Ghetto

Last updated

Lublin Ghetto
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-019-1229-30, Polen, zwei Soldaten bei Stadtbummel.jpg
Two German soldiers in the Lublin Ghetto, May 1941
Also known as German: Ghetto Lublin or Lublin Reservat
Location Lublin, German-occupied Poland
Incident typeImprisonment, forced labor, starvation, exile
Organizations SS
Campdeportations to Belzec extermination camp and Majdanek
Victims34,000 Polish Jews

The Lublin Ghetto was a World War II ghetto created by Nazi Germany in the city of Lublin on the territory of General Government in occupied Poland. [1] The ghetto inmates were mostly Polish Jews, although a number of Roma were also brought in. [2] Set up in March 1941, the Lublin ghetto was one of the first Nazi-era ghettos slated for liquidation during the deadliest phase of the Holocaust in occupied Poland. [3] Between mid-March and mid-April 1942 over 30,000 Jews were delivered to their deaths in cattle trucks at the Bełżec extermination camp and additional 4,000 at Majdanek. [1] [4]

Contents

History

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E13871, Polen, Ghetto Lublin, judische Frauen.jpg
Jewish women in occupied Lublin, September 1939
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27928, Polen, Ghetto Lublin, Polizei-Einsatz.jpg
The German Order Police descending to the cellars on a "Jew hunt, Lublin, December 1940

Already in 1939–40, before the ghetto was officially pronounced, the SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik (the SS district commander who also ran the Jewish reservation), began to relocate the Lublin Jews further away from his staff headquarters at Spokojna Street, [5] and into a new city zone set up for this purpose. Meanwhile, the first 10,000 Jews had been expelled from Lublin to the rural surroundings of the city beginning in early March. [6]

The ghetto, referred to as the "Jewish quarter" (or Wohngebiet der Juden), was formally opened a year later on 24 March 1941. The expulsion and ghettoization of the Jews was decided when the arriving Wehrmacht troops preparing for the Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, needed housing close to the new German–Soviet frontier. [6] The ghetto, the only one so far in the Lublin District of the General Government in 1941, was located around the area of the Podzamcze district, from the Grodzka Gate (renamed "Jewish Gate" to mark the boundary between the Jewish and non-Jewish sections of the city) and then along Lubartowska and Unicka streets, to the end of the Franciszkańska Street. Selected members of the prewar political parties such as the Jewish Bund in Poland were imprisoned in the Lublin Castle and continued to carry out their underground activities from there. [7]

Notable individuals

One widely feared collaborator was Szama (Shlomo) Grajer, owner of a Jewish restaurant and a brothel serving Nazis on Kowalska Street. [8] Grajer was a Gestapo informer. Dressed like a German official, Grajer summoned to his restaurant a number of wealthy Jews and extracted a ransom of 20,000 zlotys from each of them. [9] He also used to hunt for starving girls in the Ghetto for his Nazi brothel. [8] Grajer eventually cornered the daughter of Judenrat president Marek Alten and married her. They were shot dead together during the final liquidation of Majdan. [8]

Liquidation

At the time of its establishment, the ghetto imprisoned 34,000 Polish Jews, [1] and an unknown number of Roma people. Virtually all of them were dead by the war's end. Most of the victims, about 30,000, were deported to the Belzec extermination camp (some of them through the Piaski ghetto) between 17 March and 11 April 1942 by the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Orpo helped by Schutzpolizei . [10] The Germans set a daily quota of 1,400 inmates to be deported to their deaths. The other 4,000 people were first moved to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto – a small ghetto established in the suburb of Lublin – and then either killed there during roundups or sent to the nearby KL Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp. [1]

The last of the Ghetto's former residents still in German captivity were murdered at Majdanek and Trawniki camps in Operation Harvest Festival on 3 November 1943. [11] At the time of the liquidation of the ghetto, the German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary, "The procedure is pretty barbaric, and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews." [1]

After liquidating the ghetto, German authorities employed a slave labor workforce of inmates of Majdanek to demolish and dismantle the area of the former ghetto, including in the nearby village of Wieniawa and the Podzamcze district. In a symbolic event, the Maharam's Synagogue (built in the 17th century in honor of Meir Lublin) was blown up. Several centuries of Jewish culture and society in Lublin were brought to an end. The Jewish prewar population of 45,000 constituting about a third of the town's total population of 120,000 in 1939 was eradicated. [5] [11]

A few individuals managed to escape the liquidation of the Lublin Ghetto and made their way to the Warsaw Ghetto, bringing the news of the Lublin destruction. [1] The eyewitness evidence convinced some Warsaw Jews that in fact, the Germans were intent on exterminating the whole of the Jewish population in Poland. [12] However, others, including head of the Warsaw's Judenrat, Adam Czerniaków, at the time dismissed these reports of mass murders as "exaggerations". [3] Only 230 Lublin Jews are known to have survived the German occupation.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lublin</span> Place in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland

Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339. Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River and is about 170 km (106 mi) to the southeast of Warsaw by road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majdanek concentration camp</span> Nazi concentration camp

Majdanek was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, and some 227 structures in all, placing it among the largest of Nazi concentration camps. Although initially intended for forced labor rather than extermination, the camp was used to murder people on an industrial scale during Operation Reinhard, the German plan to murder all Polish Jews within their own occupied homeland. The camp, which operated from 1 October 1941 to 22 July 1944, was captured nearly intact. The rapid advance of the Soviet Red Army during Operation Bagration prevented the SS from destroying most of the camp's infrastructure, and Deputy Camp Commandant Anton Thernes failed to remove most incriminating evidence of war crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Harvest Festival</span> 1943 massacre of Jews during the Holocaust

Operation Harvest Festival was the murder of up to 43,000 Jews at the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps by the SS, the Order Police battalions, and the Ukrainian Sonderdienst on 3–4 November 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in Poland</span> Overview of the Holocaust in Poland

The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lubartów Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland

Lubartów Ghetto was established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II, and existed officially from 1941 until October 1942. The Polish Jews of the town of Lubartów were confined there initially. The ghetto inmates also included Jews deported from other cities in the vicinity including Lublin and Ciechanów and the rest of German-occupied Europe for the total of 3,500 Jews in its initial stages including 2,000 Jews from Slovakia. In May 1942 additional transport from Slovakia with 2,421 Jews arrived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mogielnica</span> Place in Masovian Voivodeship, Poland

Mogielnica is a town in Grójec County in Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,475 inhabitants (2004) and an area of 141.56 square kilometres. It is the seat of Gmina Mogielnica. In other languages, it is referred to as Mogelnitsa, Mogelnitse, Mogelnitza and/or Mogielnicy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Częstochowa Ghetto uprising</span> 1943 insurrection against German occupational forces by the Jews of Częstochowa, Poland

The Częstochowa Ghetto uprising was an insurrection in Poland's Częstochowa Ghetto against German occupational forces during World War II. It took place in late June 1943, resulting in some 2,000 Jews being killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grodno Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland

The Grodno Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto established in November 1941 by Nazi Germany in the city of Grodno for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Jews in Western Belarus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radom Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland

Radom Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto set up in March 1941 in the city of Radom during the Nazi occupation of Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Polish Jews. It was closed off from the outside officially in April 1941. A year and a half later, the liquidation of the ghetto began in August 1942, and ended in July 1944, with approximately 30,000–32,000 victims deported aboard Holocaust trains to their deaths at the Treblinka extermination camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henio Zytomirski</span> Polish Jew and Holocaust victim

Henio Zytomirski was a Polish Jew born in Lublin, Poland, who was murdered at the age of 9 in a gas chamber at Majdanek concentration camp during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. Henio became an icon of the Holocaust, not only in Lublin but all over Poland. His life story became a part of the curriculum taught in the general education system in Poland. The "Letters to Henio" project has been held in Lublin since 2005. Henio Zytomirski is one of the heroes of "The Primer" permanent exhibition at barrack 53 of the Majdanek Museum, an exhibition dedicated to children held in the camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monument to the Ghetto Heroes</span> Monument in Warsaw, Poland

The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 during the Second World War. It is located in the area which was formerly a part of the Warsaw Ghetto, at the spot where the first armed clash of the uprising took place.

<i>Ostindustrie</i>

Ostindustrie GmbH was one of many industrial projects set up by the Nazi German Schutzstaffel (SS) using Jewish and Polish forced labor during World War II. Founded in March 1943 in German-occupied Poland, Osti operated confiscated Jewish and Polish prewar industrial enterprises, including foundries, textile plants, quarries and glassworks. Osti was headed by SS-Obersturmführer Max Horn, who was subordinated directly to Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. At its height, some 16,000 Jews and 1,000 Poles worked for the company, interned in a network of labor and concentration camps in the Lublin District of the semi-colonial General Government territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pińsk Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Belarus

The Pińsk Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto created by Nazi Germany for the confinement of Jews living in the city of Pińsk, Western Belarus. Pińsk, located in eastern Poland, was occupied by the Red Army in 1939 and incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. The city was captured by the Wehrmacht in Operation Barbarossa in July 1941; it was incorporated into the German Reichskommissariat Ukraine in autumn of 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland

The Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto or the Mińsk Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. Some 7,000 Polish Jews were imprisoned there from all neighbouring settlements for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. Two years later, beginning 21 August 1942 during the most deadly phase of the Holocaust in occupied Poland, they were rounded up – men, women and children – and deported to Treblinka extermination camp aboard Holocaust trains. In the process of Ghetto liquidation, some 1,300 Jews were summarily executed by the SS in the streets of Mińsk Mazowiecki.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre</span>

The "Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre" Centre is a cultural institution based in Lublin. It is housed in the Grodzka Gate also known as the Jewish Gate that historically used to be a passage from the Christian to the Jewish part of the city. In its activities the Center focuses on issues of cultural heritage. The Polish-Jewish past of Lublin is the corner stone of the art and educational programmes carried out by the "Gate".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frumka Płotnicka</span> Polish Jewish resistance fighter (1914–1943)

Frumka Płotnicka was a Polish resistance fighter during World War II; activist of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB) and member of the Labour Zionist organization Dror. She was one of the organizers of self-defence in the Warsaw Ghetto, and participant in the military preparations for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Following the liquidation of the Ghetto, Płotnicka relocated to the Dąbrowa Basin in southern Poland. On the advice of Mordechai Anielewicz, Płotnicka organized a local chapter of ŻOB in Będzin with the active participation of Józef and Bolesław Kożuch as well as Cwi (Tzvi) Brandes, and soon thereafter witnessed the murderous liquidation of both Sosnowiec and Będzin Ghettos by the German authorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kielce Ghetto</span>

The Kielce Ghetto was a Jewish World War II ghetto created in 1941 by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in the Polish city of Kielce in the south-western region of the Second Polish Republic, occupied by German forces from 4 September 1939. Before the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Kielce was the capital of the Kielce Voivodeship. The Germans incorporated the city into Distrikt Radom of the semi-colonial General Government territory. The liquidation of the ghetto took place in August 1942, with over 21,000 victims deported to their deaths at the Treblinka extermination camp, and several thousands more shot, face-to-face.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in the Lublin District</span>

During the Holocaust, 99% of the Jews from Lublin District in the General Governorate of German-occupied Poland were murdered, along with thousands of Jews who had been deported to Lublin from elsewhere. There were three extermination camps in Lublin District, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lipowa 7 camp</span>

The Lipowa 7 camp was a Nazi forced labor concentration camp, primarily for Jews, by Lipowa Street in Lublin, Poland during December 1939 - 1944. In November 1943 nearly all Jewish inmates were exterminated.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fischel, Jack (1998). The Holocaust. Greenwood. p. 58. ISBN   9780313298790.
  2. Doris L. Bergen, War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p. 144. ISBN   0-8476-9631-6.
  3. 1 2 Lawrence N. Powell, Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke's Louisiana, UNC Press, 2002, p. 125
  4. The statistical data compiled on the basis of "Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland" Archived 2016-02-08 at the Wayback Machine by Virtual Shtetl Museum of the History of the Polish Jews  (in English), as well as "Getta Żydowskie," by Gedeon,  (in Polish) and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm  (in English). Accessed July 12, 2011.
  5. 1 2 Grodzka Gate Centre, History of Grodzka Gate (the Jewish Gate). Remembrance of Lublin's multicultural history. Also: "Operation Reinhard" in Lublin with relevant literature. Accessed July 2, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Schwindt, Barbara (2005). Das Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslager Majdanek : Funktionswandel im Kontext der "Endlösung" (PhD) (in German). Königshausen & Neumann. p. 56. ISBN   3826031237. OCLC   959351371.
  7. Robert Kuwalek, "Lublin's Jewish Heritage Trail"
  8. 1 2 3 Ziemba, Helena (2001). "W Getcie i Kryjówce w Lublinie". Ścieżki Pamięci, Żydowskie Miasto w Lublinie – Losy, Miejsca, Historia (Paths of Memory, the Jewish Ghetto of Lublin – Fate, Places, History) (PDF file, direct download 4.9 MB) (in Polish). Rishon LeZion, Israel; Lublin, Poland: Ośrodek "Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN" & Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Izraelskiej w Lublinie. pp. 27–30. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  9. Gewerc-Gottlieb, Irena (2001). "Mój Lublin Szczęśliwy i Nieszczęśliwy". Ścieżki Pamięci, Żydowskie Miasto w Lublinie – Losy, Miejsca, Historia (Paths of Memory, the Jewish Ghetto of Lublin – Fate, Places, History) (PDF file, direct download 4.9 MB) (in Polish). Rishon LeZion, Israel; Lublin, Poland: Ośrodek "Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN" & Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Izraelskiej w Lublinie. p. 24. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  10. Browning, Christopher R. (1998) [1992]. Arrival in Poland (PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Harper Perennial. ISBN   978-0060995065 . Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  11. 1 2 Mark Salter, Jonathan Bousfield, Poland, Rough Guides, 2002, pg. 304
  12. Alexandra Garbarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 49

Further reading

Coordinates: 51°15′11″N22°34′18″E / 51.25304°N 22.57155°E / 51.25304; 22.57155