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COMMUNITIES

BEREZA KARTUSKA POLAND JUST AN AVERAGE TOWN OF THE ERA

BEREZA KARTUSKA, POLAND, JUST AN AVERAGE TOWN OF THE ERA, Birch "behind the Polish clock": lively and carefree.

EXCLUDING JEWS

EXCLUDING JEWS from a playground, in German-occupied Paris, the fence around a children's public playground bears a sign forbidding entrance to Jews. Paris, France, November 1942.

GOLUB-DOBRZYN, POLAND

GOLUB-DOBRZYN, POLAND, the expulsion of the townspeople by the Nazis.

GOSTYNIN POLAND

GOSTYNIN, POLAND, a funeral in Gostynin. Immediately after the German army entered the town in Sept. 1939, mass arrests and attacks on Jews began along with requisition and looting of Jewish property. Jews were ordered to hew the old wooden synagogue into pieces and carry them to German inhabitants for fuel. They were ordered to pay two "contributions" (fines) in succession; when the president of the community was unable to collect the second sum in time, he sent a delegation to the Warsaw Jewish community (on a German suggestion) and received the required amount. A ghetto was set up in Gostynin which was at first open, but subsequently surrounded by barbed wire. Order was kept by Jewish police. Most of the Jews left the ghetto every morning for hard labor assignments. In August 1941 transports of men and women began to be sent to labor camps in the Warthegau. The ghetto was liquidated on April 16–17, 1942, when nearly 2,000 Jews were sent to the death camp at Chelmno. By the end of the war all traces of Jewish life in the town had been obliterated. The cemetery had been desecrated and destroyed, the tombstones hauled away, and the tomb (ohel) of the local ẓaddik destroyed. The few Jews from Gostynin who survived the Holocaust subsequently emigrated.

GREAT SYNAGOGUE OF BUDAPEST

GREAT SYNAGOGUE OF BUDAPEST, the second half of the 19th century was a period of prosperity for the Jewish community of Hungary. As a result, the Jews founded many institutions during this period, including the Great Synagogue in Budapest. The building was designed by Ludwig Förster, a German architect who believed that there was no distinctively Jewish architecture. As a result, he chose “architectural forms that have been used by the Israelite people.” The construction ended in 1859. During World War II, the Germans used the synagogue as a radio communication center. As many other structures in Budapest, the synagogue suffered a lot of damage during the bombings of 1944. The building remained in a state of total disrepair until the 1990s, when a full-scale restoration began.

INTERIOR OF A WOODEN SYNAGOGUE IN PRZEDBORZ POLAND

INTERIOR OF A WOODEN SYNAGOGUE IN PRZEDBORZ, POLAND, the first mention of the existence of the synagogue dates back to 1638. It was renovated in 1789. The layout of the building was typical with an elongated prayer hall in the eastern part, preceded from the west by a vestibule with a kahal chamber and a women's gallery on the first floor. It was built of larch wood and had two entrances, the main entrance from the north. Much later, a second women's gallery was added from the south, accessed by stairs in the corner annex. The synagogue was considered one of the most beautiful temples of that period, mainly due to the beautiful woodcarving. The walls of the prayer room were polychromed. The bimah, built on an octagonal plan, dates back to the mid-18th century. It was burned on September 3, 1939.

IWJE

IWJE, the ghetto population there rose to about 4,000 and epidemics of typhus and skin diseases took their toll. On May 12, 1942, the Germans selected 200-300 Jews who had legitimate working certificates and took them to the ghetto of Lida. Later they selected 1,200-1,300 more Jews who appeared healthy and able-bodied. The elderly and sick, as well as large families with small children, were taken to their deaths in the same Stonewicze Forest, where 2,300 Jews were killed on this day. After this operation, some young Jews succeeded in fleeing and to join the Soviet partisans. The Germans began to send groups of workers from Iwje to labor camps in Lida, Mołodeczno, Borisov, and other places. On January 20, 1943, all those still in the Iwje ghetto were sent to Borisov, where they died (most probably they were shot) in the peat bogs of Biała Bołota in March 1943. Iwje was liberated by the Red Army on July 8, 1944.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF CZORTKOW POLAND

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF CZORTKOW, POLAND, Group portrait of survivors from the Jewish community of Czortkow, who are attending a memorial service in Wroclaw, Poland.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF HRUBIESZOW

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF HRUBIESZOW, that day, peasants from the surrounding villages would come to Hrubieszow in their produce–filled wagons. Jews would check out the carts, and buy chickens, geese, ducks, or even a calf. Once they had a few zloty, the peasants scattered to the bars or the shops.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KISHINEV

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KISHINEV, the German and Romanian armies occupied Kishinev on July 18, 1941, and the Ghetto was established on July 22-23. It lasted about two months. According to the report, it had a population of 11,525 Jews, 64% of which were women and children and 28% old people. The deportations from the Ghetto to Transnistria started on October 12, 1941, on what proved to be a death march. Transnistria was the southernmost part of the Ukraine, between the rivers Nistru and Bug. It was renamed as such to indicate the conquered area "given" by the Germans to their Romanian allies. Exactly how many Jews perished during 1941 to 1944 in the areas of Bucovina, Bessarabia and Transnistria will never be known. Estimates run between 200,000 to almost double this number. Every one of them, men, women and children, was an innocent victim of the Holocaust and the murder of most of them was the responsibility of the Romanian regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MLAWA

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MLAWA, in September 1939, many Jewish people left Mława and other Masovian towns and headed east and towards Warsaw. In October and November 1939, when the Germans entered Mława, many Jews fled to the USSR. On 8 October, the Nazis incorporated Mława (along with a part of north Masovia) into the Reich. Reich territories were supposed to be "Judenfrei" so the Germans immediately began deportations. In December, as Jews living in Mława were displaced, refugees from other towns soon replaced them. On Yom Kippur in 1939, the synagogue in Mława burned down. The Germans forced the Jews to watch the fire. In December 1939, 3,000 Jews were taken to the concentration camp in Działdowo. Over the course of the year, approximately 4,000 Jewish people were sent from Mława to Biała Podlaska, Kosowo Lackie, Winnica, and Michałów Lubelski. Mentally ill or disabled people were killed on the spot. In December 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in Mława. It occupied an area of about 30 hectares and was located in the area bounded by Warszawska, Długa, Płocka and Szewska Streets. Opened in May 1941, it was surrounded by a brick wall and barbed wire. Its inhabitants were mostly Jews resettled from other towns such as Szreńsk, Drobin, Radzanowo, Zieluń, Maków Mazowiecki, Przasnysz, Kuczbork, Bieżuń and also Lidzbark, Rypin and Lipno. In 1940-1941, there were about 5,000-6,000 people in the ghetto in total. In 1940, a slave labor camp was formed in the town as well. The Germans used the ritual bath on Narutowicza Street to intern about 300 forced laborers: Jews, Poles and, later, also Russians. The prisoners were forced to perform public service work and were sent to build a military camp in the nearby village of Nosarzewo. Some of the Jews of Mława were also sent to a prison-camp in Pomiechówek, where prisoners were treated with particular brutality. The first president of the Judenrat Eliezer Perlmuter was arrested by the Germans in January 1942 and killed during an interrogation. Paltiel Ceglo succeeded him as president until he too was imprisoned. The post was then taken over by Mendel Czarka. Herman Mordowicz was chairman of the Jewish Court and Menache Dawidson was Chief of the Jewish Police. Due to bribes paid by the Mława Judenrat, the Germans turned a blind eye to the smuggling that was going on in the ghetto. A library was run by Dawid Krystal. There was also an illegal radio receiver in the ghetto. Doctor Tiefenbrun was responsible for treating the inhabitants and saw to it that they were vaccinated against typhus. After his death, Józef Witwicki continued his work. The liquidation of the ghetto was preceded by murders of individual people. For instance, on 18 April 1942, four people were killed. In the 1942 German "List of Special Operations" the following note concerning summarized the crime and those that followed: "During the execution, the ghetto’s population was arrogant and defiant, so in order to restore order a second execution was performed on 17 June 1942 in which 50 Jews were killed." By the end of 1942, the ghetto in Mława ceased to exist. Approximately 6,000-7,000 people were deported to extermination camps. On 10 November 1942, the elderly and sick were deported to Treblinka and those who remained were moved to Auschwitz in three transports: on 13 and 17 November and 10 December.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF NIESVIEZ

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF NIESVIEZ, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, a few Jews fled from Nieśwież to the Soviet Union with the retreating Soviet army. On the eve of the German occupation in June 1941, some 4,600 Jews lived in the city. On 27 June 1941 the Germans occupied Nieśwież, and within a few days, anti-Jewish measures were enacted. Early measures included the obligation to wear the yellow star, the prohibition on walking on sidewalks, the prohibition on relations with non-Jews, and forced recruitment to hard labor. The Germans instituted a Judenrat and appointed a Jewish lawyer from Warsaw who had taken refuge in Nieśwież as its head. In October, the Germans ordered the Jews of Nieśwież to pay a ransom in rubles and gold. In order to ensure the ransom’s payment, the Germans took local Jewish men as hostages. Abuse, robbery and murder of Jews became an everyday occurrence. The Jews’ silver and copper was confiscated, residents of the main streets were evicted from their homes, and every infraction of a German order was punishable by death. A number of Jews were charged with buying potatoes from peasants, and were subsequently murdered. On 29 October 1941, the Judenrat was ordered to gather all the Jews in the market square. The following day, after hours of waiting in the square, 685 professionals and their families were separated from the others. The remaining Jews, some 4000 men, women and children, were taken to pits that had been prepared in advanced in the Nieśwież palace garden, and to pits that had been dug about 3 km away from the city, on the way to Snow. The Jews were forced to undress, and were shot to death into the pits. The murderers were members of a Lithuanian murder squad, German gendarmes and members of Einsatzkommando 8.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF OSTROG POLAND

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF OSTROG, POLAND, residents of Ostrog were involved in the war on its first day — September 1, 1939. People from our city kept their weapons until the last day of the war, September 2, 1945. Ostrogans fought on different fronts of the global conflict, often against each other. In our project, we tell the story of the city and its inhabitants in this war. The main goal is to tell about how the Second World War changed the city and how this war affects its present. By the word "Ostrozhany" we understand the inhabitants of the city at that time or those who came from it, regardless of nationality, language or religion. The territory described in this project is Ostrog, its surroundings and places of combat where prisoners were present.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF RADZYN POLAND

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF RADZYN, POLAND, although Radzyn was not a fenced-in ghetto with barbed wire, hardly anyone dared to leave the Jewish section. Venturing outside always brought trouble, risks and even danger to one's life.' The Kreishauptmann reported in September 1941, that there were no sealed-off ghettos in the whole of the Kreis, only Jewish quarters, but that some Jews were still living outside of these quarters due to the lack of living space inside. But even if there was no sealed-off Jewish quarters in Distrikt Lublin from February 1941, Jews were no longer allowed to leave their places of residence, and from October 1941, the punishment for leaving the town without official permission was the death penalty. The process of ghettoisation in Radzyn does not appear to have been completed until the spring of 1942. According to an article titled 'Ghetto in Radzyn' published in the regional newspaper, Nowy Glos Lubelski, in mid-April 1942: 'in the last weeks, a special Jewish quarter was created in Radzyn, into which all Jews, who still live beyond it, soon will be moved.' Among the motivations for the German authorities was the effort to reduce black market activity, which was blamed on 'corrupt Jews.' Regarding the reaction of the local Polish population, there are hardly any documents on Radzyn itself. As Joseph Schupack recalled, there were some Poles who wanted to help, but many of them just wanted to get their hands on Jewish possessions, and therefore they offered to look after such items until the end of the occupation. Able-bodied Jews had to work for the Germans. The workers met early in the morning in front of the Judenrat building on Kozia Street and were escorted from there to their places of work. The Judenrat tried to organize this work as effectively as possible to prevent German terror. Some Jews were forced to work; others were very poor and tried to find work to have something to eat. The German employment office in Radzyn assigned Jews of the entire Kreis to various workplaces.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ROVNO UKRAINE

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ROVNO, UKRAINE, this Ukrainian City Was Once Home to a Vibrant Jewish Community. Now Its Grand Synagogue Is a Sports Hall, in an area in Northwest Ukraine. With Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German army advanced so rapidly that most of Volhynia’s Jews were trapped, and only an estimated 5% were able to flee eastwards. As soon as the area was occupied, pogroms perpetrated by the local population as well as mass shooting of Jews by the German Einsatzgruppen began. Ghettos were established where Jews lived in terrible conditions and under a regime of terror and forced labor. In summer 1942 a new wave of killings was launched. Until October 1942 some 142,000 Jews were murdered, among them the remaining 4,500 Jews of Dubno – the massacre witnessed and described by volhynia. By the beginning of 1943 all remaining Jews in ghettos and camps where liquidated. Those who managed to escape joined the partisans in Volhynia’s forests. Even there, Jews were often faced with hostility and antisemitism and found that they were rejected by non-Jewish resisters. It is estimated that only 1.5% of Volhynia’s Jews survived.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SLUTSK

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SLUTSK, one of the last significant massacres of Jews occurred on 8 February 1943, with the liquidation of the "town ghetto" of Slutsk. The Jews were driven in trucks to the former estate of Mokhart, popularly called Mokharty, 5 km (3.1 mi) east of Slutsk, where they were shot from behind in mass graves by personnel of the Minsk security police office.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF VIRBALIS LITHUANIA

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF VIRBALIS, LITHUANIA, a small town in Southern Lithuania,
where the Jewish Community is no more. A monument is located in the forest, a small pillar points to its direction. The monument itself consists of 2 concert pillars with a plaque in Lithuanian and in Yiddish confirmed on them. The text on the plaque reads as follows: The blood of approximately 10.000 Jews (children, women and men) Lithuanian citizens and prisoners of war from different country's was spilled here. They were brutally murdered by Nazi executioners and their aids in the months VII-VIII 1941.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF YALTA

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF YALTA, with the German occupation of Crimea at the end of 1941, the Jews who had remained in the town were concentrated in a ghetto and on Dec. 16–17, 1941, about 1,500 people were murdered.

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ZBARAZH

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ZBARAZH, Zbarazh was occupied by the Germans on July 4, 1941, but before the occupation authority was in place, Ukrainian nationalists instigated a pogrom that murdered twenty Jews and burned two synagogues. Soviet prisoners of war were also killed. By the time of the German invasion, the Jewish population of around 3000 had swelled to around 5000 because of refugees from western Poland. Later in 1941, the German security police murdered 70 Jews in the Lubianka Forest. In 1942, around 3000 Jews were sent from Zbarazh to the Belzec killing camp on four occasions, sometimes by way of Tarnopol. In October, some Jews were sent to the Janowska Street camp in Lwow and others were killed in Zbarazh. After that, the Germans established a ghetto for the 2000 Jews from Zbarazh and neighboring areas that had been sent to the town. About 20 people shared each room in the ghetto. In the expectation of further deportations, some Jews found hiding places. Nonetheless, in November, another 1000 Jews were sent to Belzec. During the winter of 1942-43, many Jews starved and died from disease. Others were sent to slave labor camps. In April 1943, another 1000 Jews were murdered near the Zbarazh railway station, and in June, German and Ukrainian police shot the remaining few hundred Jews. After that, Germans and Ukrainians hunted down Jews who were hidden in the forests. Only about 60 Zbarazh Jews of the 3000 who had lived in the town before the war survived.

JEWISH DUBNO POLAND

JEWISH DUBNO, POLAND, In the second half of 1943, Dubno became a shelter for ethnic Polish population of Volhynia, who came here to escape the Volhynian Genocide. The town was defended by a unit of Polish self-defense, which was tolerated by German authorities. On February 28, 1944, the Germans evacuated Poles from Dubno to Brody, and then to the Reich, where they became slave workers. In 1944 Dubno found itself again under Soviet occupation and after the war it was taken from Poland and annexed by the Soviet Union.

JEWISH SYNAGOGUE IN STANISLAVOV

JEWISH SYNAGOGUE IN STANISLAWOW, from September 1939 until the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Stanisławów was under Soviet occupation. On July 2, 1941, Hungarian troops occupied Stanisławów and by the end of July the Germans had taken over control of the city. On July 26, 1941, on the orders of the Gestapo, a Judenrat (Jewish council) was established to organize Jewish life and—above all—to implement German orders. The chairman was Israel Seibald, who had been active within the Jewish community before the war. His deputy was the lawyer, Michael Lamm. The Jewish Council was ordered to establish a Jewish police, the so-called Ordnungsdienst (Order Service). On August 1, 1941, Galicia became the fifth district of the General Government. One day later SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Krüger ordered Seibald to draw up a list of Jews who belonged to independent professions and these men were ordered to come to the Gestapo View This Term in the Glossary headquarters on Bilinski Street. As they thought they would get new jobs, many of them (more than 500) turned up. Only a few members of the “intelligentsia” tried to hide. On August 3, members of the SS and the Gestapo were waiting for the different groups. Survivors describe how they were tortured, and most were killed afterwards in a nearby forest. Their families did not learn the truth for quite a while and continued to send packages, as they were told that their husbands were being held in prison. After this Aktion against the intelligentsia the German administration issued similar anti-Jewish decrees as in the rest of the General Government View This Term in the Glossary after September 1939. Jews were required to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David. View This Term in the Glossary Marked like this they were easily identifiable as Jews, and it became unsafe for them to walk on the streets. Male Jews in particular were taken without warning for forced labor, such as repairing streets or bridges. Women were also forcibly co-opted, for example, to perform cleaning jobs. To end this chaotic situation the Jewish council instructed the lawyer Dr. Tenenbaum to set up a Labor Office. Every day the registered Jews had to assemble at the Labor Office to be sent to perform various kinds of forced labor for the Germans. Later on in the ghetto it was this office that organized Jewish work details that went outside the ghetto. The Gestapo View This Term in the Glossary also demanded contributions, which the Jewish council collected from among the Jewish population. Then they demanded all the valuables that the Jews still possessed. Germans in uniform also entered Jewish houses to plunder them. In addition, the German civil administration, under Kreishauptmann Heinz Albrecht and Stadtkommissar Emil Beau, drew up plans to establish a ghetto. Before the Jews were enclosed in a ghetto, the Germans wanted first to “decimate” them. On October 12, 1941, they demonstrated how they meant to “solve” the “Jewish Question” in the area. This day was later called “Blutsonntag” (“Bloody Sunday”). Unlike the other districts of the General Government, View This Term in the Glossary in the region of Stanisławów the local German administration did not wait until the killing centers had been established. Thousands of Jews were gathered on the market square; then the German forces escorted them to the Jewish cemetery, where mass graves had already been prepared. On the way the German and Ukrainian escorts beat and tortured the Jews. At the cemetery the Jews were compelled to give away their valuables and show their papers. Some of them were then released, but the majority had to remain. The men of the Security Police (Sipo) then started the mass shootings, assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and also the railroad police. Krüger personally took part in the shootings. The Germans ordered the Jews to undress in groups and then proceed to the graves where they were shot. They fell into the grave or were ordered to jump in before being shot.

JEWISH SZEBRZESZY

JEWISH SZEBRZESZYN, German troops with a Luftwaffe unit round-up a group of elderly, religious Jews in Szebrzeszyn.

JEWISH WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN GOSTYNIN, POLAND

JEWISH WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN GOSTYNIN, POLAND, the German occupation in Gostynin was a terrible one. The purpose of the Nazis was to take from the Jews everything they had – their property and their life. They did that, as always, in a very organized manner: in order to rob their property, they allowed the victims to live for a while. Cheating and misleading, they promised every time that the demands they issued “this time” will be the last, and that as soon as the Jews would obey, they will not have to endure new decrees. The Jews believed them, because deep in their hearts they hoped that wickedness and evil must fail, that cruelty must be defeated and that a day will come when the power of justice will win. They hoped that if only they survived the difficult times, better times must and will come. Most importantly – to survive.

JEWS IN THE PORT OF FEODOSIYA

JEWS IN THE PORT OF FEODOSIYA, soldiers forced uncomfortable residents to hand over their clothes and then herded them into mass graves outside the city, where they were shot.

JEWS OF AISHISHAK VILNA PROVINCE LITHUANIAN S.S.R.

JEWS OF AISHISHAK VILNA PROVINCE LITHUANIAN S.S.R., in 1941, the German army invaded the small town of Eishyshok, Poland (now Lithuania) and brutally murdered nearly all 3,500 Jewish residents.

JEWS OF CHELM

JEWS OF CHELM, a slaughter of Jews took place in Chelm on the first day of the month of December [1939]. The Hitlerists shot hundreds of Chelm Jews! At the beginning, nebulous rumors circulated about the gruesome death; it was difficult to find out the truth about this violence. Of course, we were unable to learn any facts. Chelm, of course, lies far from here. The city was also severed from the Soviet realm, so that Jewish refugees seldom emerged through there. And if a Jew from that area did sometimes escape from that gehenem [hell], he remained in a small shtetl in Wolyn or in Galicia and the world did not know what happened there. In the beginning of January 1940, we first received conclusive information about the ruthless slaughter of the Chelm Jews. Several young halutzim [agricultural pioneers, whose goal was to settle in Eretz-Yisroel] from Chelm arrived who had actually left there before the slaughter of the Jews had been carried out there. However, they received the news from there from several Chelm Jews who were saved from the slaughter. In addition to this, a woman also came, who had been in Chelm until the middle of December and herself had been present for all of the horrible events in Chelm. On the basis of this information and particularly on the basis of what was said by an eyewitness to everything that occurred in Chelm, I now have the opportunity to tell the world all of the frightening details of the slaughter of the Jews in Chelm. The slaughter of the Jews was carried out on the first day of the month of December, as said. However, the Germans had occupied Chelm at the beginning of October. In the course of two months, the Nazi youth in Chelm did not have idle hands. Earlier, they did “something” to the local Jews before their savage death.

JEWS OF CHMIELNIK

JEWS OF CHMIELNIK, view of the market square in Chmielnik, Poland. During the war of 1939, there were no significant battles near Chmielnik. The German army marched into the town on 4th September, 1939, at about 4.30 pm. First, two tanks entered the town, one from Busko and the other one from Pińczów. The carpenter, Chaim Wolf Moszkowicz aged 24, son of Jankiel who was standing on guard at that time, was killed from one of the tanks. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Chmielnik. In the evening, at about 7 or 8 pm, some more tanks, military vehicles as well as infantry regiment entered the town. Without any reason, Germans burnt down the house of Zawierucha brothers and lime kilns belonging to Kaufman and Szlama Ptasznik. At night, on the 4th September 14 Jews as well as the prefect of the state schools, the priest Władysław Kwieciński, were dragged out of their houses and locked in the house of prayer in Sienkiewicza Street, next to the synagogue. Then the building was set on fire. The priest managed to survive by jumping out of a window from the height of three meters onto a neighboring yard and escaped under a volley of bullets. All the other people died, either inside the building or when trying to escape. The following Jews, inhabitants of Chmielnik, died on that day: Berek Trombecki, Joel Unger, Szmul Elja Wajl, Goldsztajn, a tailor, two rabbis from Chęciny, Margules and others whose names are unknown. The building, which housed the offices of the Jewish Community, was completely destroyed. On the same day Stanisław Grusiecki was killed in his yard in Mickiewicza Street, only because he was watching the passing German squads. In the evening, Germans damaged and robbed 50 Jewish shops.

JEWS OF MINSK

JEWS OF MINSK, Jews from the Minsk ghetto clearing snow at the train station as part of coercive work in February 1942.

JEWS OF OSTROVIEC POLAND

JEWS OF OSTROVIEC, POLAND, remnants of the Ostrovtser Jews against the background of ruins of the Jewish quarter of their town. At the outbreak of World War ii there were about 8,000 Jews in Ostrowiec. The first Aktion took place on Oct. 11–12, 1942, when 11,000 Jews from Ostrowiec and the vicinity were deported to the *Treblinka death camp. In October 1942 a forced-labor camp for Jews was established in Ostrowiec. On Jan. 16, 1943, 1,000 Jews were deported to the *Sandomierz forced-labor camp. The Jewish community was liquidated on June 10, 1943, when the remaining 2,000 Jews were transferred to Ostrowiec forced-labor camp, which was itself liquidated on Aug. 3, 1944, when the inmates were deported to *Auschwitz. An underground organization, headed by the brothers Kopel and Moshe Stein, and David Kempinski, was active in Ostrowiec. They established contact with the leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization in *Warsaw. A few groups of prisoners escaped and started guerrilla activities in the vicinity. Those who fled in July 1944 conducted guerrilla activities until the liberation of the region in July 1945. After the war the Jewish community of Ostrowiec was not reconstituted.

JEWS OF ZAVIERCIE

JEWS OF ZAVIERCIE, TEARS, in Jewish life in camps, Markstädt camp, Religion, Sabbath and festivals. When the Germans invaded Poland at the beginning of September 1939, many Jewish people from Zawiercie, mainly young people, fled to places in eastern Poland. On September 4, 1939 the German army entered Zawiercie. Many of the refugees, especially those who did not go far enough, returned to their homes in Zawiercie. The Jewish population at this time in Zawiercie was about 7000. On September 27, eve of the Succoth holiday, the Germans demanded that the Jewish population of Zawiercie pay them a ransom of 300,000 Zloty and threatened to punish the entire Jewish community if the Germans did not get their money in time. Despite the difficulty of raising such a large amount of money, the community transferred the money to the Germans on time. In the first days of the German occupation, the Germans started to abduct Jewish people for forced labor. They also abused the Jews, cutting their beards and side locks, and beat them.

KALISZ POLAND 1939

KALISZ, POLAND 1939, after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the proximity of the border once again proved disastrous. Kalisz was captured by the Wehrmacht after Polish resistance,[14] and the city was annexed by Germany. In revenge for resistance, the Wehrmacht carried out massacres of Polish defenders, who were executed both in the city and in the nearby settlement of Winiary (today, a district of Kalisz).[14] Over 1,000 people were arrested as hostages.[14] Numerous Poles were arrested and murdered during the Intelligenzaktion aimed at annihilation of the Polish intelligentsia. Around 750 Poles from Kalisz, and other nearby settlements were imprisoned in the Kalisz prison from September 1939 to March 1940, and most were murdered in large massacres in the Winiary forest.[15] In November 1939, the Einsatzgruppe VI Nazi paramilitary killing squad murdered 41 Poles at the local Jewish cemetery; among the victims was pre-war Polish mayor of Kalisz, Ignacy Bujnicki.[16] In April and May 1940, many Poles arrested in the region, especially teachers, were imprisoned in the local prison, and afterwards deported to the Mauthausen and Dachau concentration camps, where they were murdered.

KROSNO POLAND

KROSNO, POLAND, German photographers force Jews to pull the beard of the other Jew. The couple on the right side is that of Rabbi Shmuel Fuhrer on the left and Nussbaum on the right. We could not identify the couple on the left side. All Jews involved display their arm bands. The event took place in the center of town.

KYSAK SLOVAKIA

KYSAK, SLOVAKIA, in eastern Slovakia, is known for its railway, which played a significant role in World War II. During World War II, the Jews of Kőszeg were among the last to be deported to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944. Later that year Nazis established a slave labor camp at Kőszeg where 4,500 died of typhus. With the impending arrival of the Red Army in 1945, the camp was liquidated. The camp's 2,000 survivors endured a "death march" of about 300 kilometres (190 mi) for several weeks over the Alps to Ebensee. When the Red Army approached Kőszeg in March, 1945, the Hungarian commander, Béla Király, surrendered the city to spare it further destruction.

LEADERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

LEADERS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY of the town of Balti (right) are seen before their execution on July 15, 1941. German soldiers stand at left. (Photo: Matatias Carp, Cartea Neagra - Bucharest, 1947 - Volume III)

LEPEL BELARUS

LEPEL, BELARUS, was captured by German troops on July 3, 1941. The occupiers proceeded to set up a ghetto and to appoint a Jewish elder. The Jews of Lepel were killed in two murder operations - in the fall of 1941 and in February 1942. Lepel was liberated by the Red Army on June 28, 1944. View in town during Nazi occupation in World War II. Photo 1941-1942.

MIR POLAND YESHIVA

MIR, POLAND, YESHIVA, students, and teachers of the exiled Mir yeshiva study in the sanctuary of the Beth Aharon synagogue on Museum Road in Shanghai. On the eve of WWII, some 2,400 Jews lived in Mir (Poland, today - Belarus), about half of the town's population. This was a community of traders, peddlers, manufacturers and Torah scholars. Mir was the location of the renowned Lithuanian Yeshiva that attracted scholars from across the Jewish world. In September 1939, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement, Mir was annexed to the Belarus Republic of the USSR, and placed under Soviet rule. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Within five days, the Germans reached Mir. By 16 August 1942, the entire Jewish population of Mir had been murdered in three waves of executions at shooting pits. On the night of 9 August, a few days before the final mass murder, some 200 Jews managed to escape from Mir with the help of Oswald Rufeisen. They fled to the forests and joined the partisans.

PIASKI

PIASKI, the first deportations from Piaski took place shortly after 16 March 1942, probably to make room for an influx of Jews from the Reich. Approximately 3,400 Polish Jews and Jews from Stettin, who were deemed as ‘unfit for work,’ were marched to Trawniki, where they were held overnight in a barn at the former sugar refinery, together with some Jews from Biskupice. Several hundred of these people died from suffocation overnight. The next day the corpses were loaded onto the cattle wagons along with the living deportees, to be sent to the Belzec death camp.

PRUT RIVER

PRUT RIVER, 1.7.1941, German engineers of the 11th army (Heeresgrüppe Süd), building a pontoon bridge across the Prut River in Romania during the advance towards Uman. Romania, bridge construction over the Prut.

REMEMBER JEWISH PIASKI

REMEMBER JEWISH PIASKI, the first deportations from Piaski took place shortly after 16 March 1942, probably to make room for an influx of Jews from the Reich. Approximately 3,400 Polish Jews and Jews from Stettin, who were deemed as ‘unfit for work,’ were marched to Trawniki, where they were held overnight in a barn at the former sugar refinery, together with some Jews from Biskupice. Several hundred of these people died from suffocation overnight. The next day the corpses were loaded onto the cattle wagons along with the living deportees, to be sent to the Belzec death camp. Transports from the Reich to Piaski began on 23 March 1942, when approximately 1,000 Jews from Mainz and Darmstadt arrived in Piaski. According to Martha Bauchwitz, this transport arrived penniless. Then on 28 March 1942, 985 Jews arrived from Berlin. On 1 April 1942, 1,000 Jews arrived in Piaski from the Theresienstadt fortress ghetto. Working-age Jews from this and the other transports in March 1942, such as Kurt Ticho Thomas, originally from Boskovice, Czechoslovakia were deployed as agricultural workers on nearby farms. The deportations from Piaski to the death camps, via Trawniki, resumed on 6 April 1942, and on 11 April 1942, the German Security Police Transfer Office Piaski, itemised property seized from the Jews recently dispatched to Belzec. The property listed was 8,300.54-zloty, 85 gold rubles, and 5 wedding rings, as well as 45 men’s vests, 2 fur pelts, 9 pairs of children’s mittens and other goods. According to official German records, there were further transports to Piaski on 6 April 1942, when 989 Jews arrived from Munich, and on 25 April 1942, when another 1,000 Jews arrived from Theresienstadt. However, more than 200 of the able-bodied men on each transport were selected in Lublin, probably for the Lublin concentration camp. On 19 May 1942, Zigenmeyer reported that 6,166 Jews from Piaski had been resettled. The deportation necessitated the re-construction of the Judenrat in Piaski and the Jewish Police as well. Polisecki remained as Chairman, and the Judenrat had two more long- standing members, Moses Drajblat and Josef Aschmann. The nine replacements had arrived on the recent transport from the Reich. They were Moritz Israel Fried, Ernst Schlosser, Siegfried Kugelmann, Fritz Sanger, Hugo Railing, Kurt Hirschmann, Ernst Böhm, Walter Guttsmann, and Friedrich-Wilhelm Kempner. The age range of the new Judenrat was from 28 to 62, and was decidedly middle-class in its composition. The Jewish Police was also re-organized, with Stefan Reinemann oversaw 30 Reich and Protectorate Jews in the force, including one woman Bela Trattner. On 15 May 1942, the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) banned Jews in the General Government from corresponding with relatives in the Reich or elsewhere, effectively cutting Piaski off from the world, apart from the JSS Lublin-Lands somewhat cursory replies to enquiries from relatives. By June 1942, deportations of Western European Jews went direct to the Belzec and Sobibor death camps, which obviated the need for Piaski to serve as a transit ghetto. The main deportation ‘Aktion’ took place during the period 22-30 October 1942, when some 5,000 Jews were deported to the Sobibor death camp, via Trawniki. On 23 October 1942, 3,000 Jews from the Leczna ghetto were marched to Piaski and from there, they shared the same fate, and were also deported to the Sobibor death camp, via Trawniki. Also in October 1942, Higher-SS and Police Leader East Friedrich – Wilhelm Krüger, designated Piaski one of the few locations where Jews were allowed to reside in, the so-called ‘Jewish Residential districts,’ this was a ruse to tempt those Jews in hiding to return to the ghetto and thus be deported more easily. In late October 1942, Krüger inspected Piaski to see if the ruse was working. Starting in November 1942, a small forced labour camp for Jews operated in Piaski, but this only lasted until March or April 1943, when the inmates were sent to the Trawniki labor camp.

RESIDENTS OF DZISNA

RESIDENTS OF DZISNA, in the Vilnius district. Dzisna itself was a town close to the border, there were two rivers. There were 6 thousand people in Dzisna. Some 60 percent were Jews.

SHTETL BRAILOV

SHTETL BRAILOV, the Germans occupied Brailov on July 17, 1941. Only a portion of Brailov’s Jewish population managed to escape. On the first day of German rule, fifteen local Jews were killed. The Jews of Brailov were forced into a ghetto, and most were then shot in a series of operations carried out between February and August 1942, near the town’s Jewish cemetery. A number of Brailov’s Jews escaped to the Romanian occupation zone of Transnistria, but only some of them survived. The others were sent back to Brailov and shot. The Germans then declared the town “Judenrein.”

SHTETL OF OTTYNIA, POLAND

SHTETL OF OTTYNIA, POLAND, there are 4455 inhabitants. It is 1 km from the Kolomyja-Stanislawow railway line. It has a municipal office building, (Roman) Catholic and Greek Catholic churches, trade associations of merchants, industrialists, and tavern keepers. Market day is Tuesday. There are fairs 13 times each year for the sale of cattle and hogs. There are brick factories and oil refineries.”

SISTERS EVA AND LIANE MÜNZER

SISTERS EVA AND LIANE MÜNZER, Denunciations of Jews to German authorities came from a variety of different sources, sometimes even from their "protectors." In 1944, Eva and Liane Münzer (pictured here) were reported to the police as a result of a domestic fight between their rescuers. The irate husband denounced his wife and the two Jewish girls. The Münzer sisters were sent to Auschwitz and killed. Credits: Alfred Munzer: US Holocaust Memorial Museum

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TARNOPAL

TARNOPOL, after the outbreak of the war between Hitler and Stalin, the Germans entered Ternopil, which was in the Soviet occupation zone. The Soviets, on the other hand, in accordance with the order of the head of the NKVD Beria, killed all political prisoners in the Tarnopol detention center and then buried their bodies in the courtyard of the detention center. almost all the prisoners were Ukrainians. After the Germans entered, the local Jews were forced to exhume the bodies by order of the SS commander. the exhumation was public, and the Germans deliberately provoked the shocked people into aggression against these Jews. almost all of them were killed on the spot.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KISTARCSA HUNGARY

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KISTARCSA, HUNGARY, transit camp 9 mi. (15 km.) N.W. of *Budapest, where Hungarian Jews were detained during World War II. In the 1930s opponents of Horthy's regime and left-wing political prisoners, including many Jews, were interned there. When Hungary was occupied by the Germans (March 19, 1944), a large number of Jews were immediately arrested and shipped to the *SS-run Kistarcsa camp administered by the Hungarian police. The camp commandant, Istvan Vasdenyei, behaved well and cooperated with Jewish organizations. A trainload of 1,800 Jewish prisoners was dispatched from Kistarcsa to *Auschwitz on April 29, 1944, followed by another 18 train-loads of similar size with Budapest's Jews. Information about the Auschwitz extermination center and the unbearable living conditions of its inmates had reached Hungary during the German invasion. The camp became more particularly known when *Eichmann and his assistants attempted various deceptions after Regent Horthy decided (June 26, 1944) to halt the deportations. Eichmann would not accept the Hungarian order for cessation and on July 14, he made an attempt to ship 1,500 Jews from Kistarcsa.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KOLOMYJA

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KOLOMYJA, in 1941, there were over 60.000 Jews in Kolomyja which had become the central transit and extermination point for the Jewish population of that district. At the end of the war, only 200 Jews had survived.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF VILKAVISKIS LITHUANIA

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF VILKAVISKIS, LITHUANIA, parade on February 16, 1923 Lithuania's independence is only 5 years old. The German army occupied Vilkaviškis on June 22, 1941. Many Jewish homes and the synagogue were destroyed by bombing. With the onset of the occupation, Lithuanian nationalists attacked local Jews. A few weeks later the Jews were imprisoned in a ghetto set up in a military barracks outside of town. The Jewish men of Vilkaviškis were murdered on July 28, 1941, in two pits, prepared in advance. On September 24 the Jewish women and children were shot at the same location. The massacres were carried out by the Einsatzkommando Tilsit, commanded by Hans-Joachim Boehme, aided by Lithuanian nationalists. According to Soviet sources, a total of 3,056 people were murdered at that time. The Red Army liberated Vilkaviškis in the summer of 1944.

THE MIR SHTETL

THE MIR SHTETL, the image of the shtetl is often synonymous with Jewish Eastern European life. Shtetl is Yiddish for “town,” and refers to the small pre-WWII towns in Eastern Europe with a significant Yiddish-speaking Jewish population. Jews occupied a large percentage of the shtetl and were often the majority. They worked as shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, carpenters and water carriers, and Jewish life flourished. Families would live in the same shtetl for generations, forming close-knit communities.

THE NEUE SYNAGOGUE

THE NEUE SYNAGOGUE, in Berlin. One of the few synagogues to survive Kristallnacht, it was heavily damaged in World War Two. It was eventually repaired and still stands today. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST

THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST. Czech artist Leo Haas (1901–1983) risked his life to record the atrocities he saw during the Holocaust. Though documentary in nature, his art is deeply personal, illustrating the fragmented reality and varied intensity of feeling that pervaded his life during Nazi occupation. The JDC Archives Artifacts and Ephemera Collection holds a series of lithographs by the artist, which were purchased at Israel G. Jacobson’s request (Director for AJDC, Czechoslovakia). Haas sold the 12 original prints to JDC in June 1946 in Prague. The lithographs document Haas’ experiences during the war as seen through the perspective of a prisoner, with image titles ranging from “Daily Count in Saxenhausen” and “Starvation in Theresien” to “Asylum Auschwitz” and “The Death March”.

TREMBOVLA

TREMBOVLA, view of the castle and the city from Pokrivka. On April 7, 1943, a second murder operation was carried out in the Trembowla Ghetto. Many of the remaining inmates hid in various shelters, some of which were stocked with food and water in anticipation of a long stay. The Germans and their accomplices used bloodhounds, burned down houses, and destroyed walls and floors in their attempt to uncover the hiding places. At the end of the day, they led some 1,100 Jews to a forest near the village of Plebanówka, about three kilometers from Trembowla, and shot them. A few Jews attacked the murderers, and several individuals were able to escape in the ensuing chaos. On June 2-3, 1943, the Trembowla Ghetto was liquidated by a German police unit with the help of the Ukrainian Police. The operation was carried out under the command of Friedrich Hildebrand. Some 1,000 Jews were rounded up in the market square. They were taken to Plebanówka and shot.

Warsaw Burning The German Response to the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Burning: The German Response to the Warsaw Uprising, the German response to the Warsaw Uprising was characterized by ruthless terror and unrelenting bloodshed, which caused civilian support to drastically diminish.

ZAMOSC JEWRY

ZAMOSC JEWRY, deportation of Jews from Zamość, April 1942. In 1931, the Jewish population in Zamosc was 10,265. Polish mobs attacked Jews prior to the German occupation of the city on October 7, 1939. In April 1941, the Jews were confined to a ghetto. Deportations began on April 11, 1942 when about 3,000 Jews were sent to the Belzec death camp. Deportations continued until the final liquidation of the ghetto on October 16, 1942.