Łachwa Ghetto

Coordinates: 52°13′N 27°6′E / 52.217°N 27.100°E / 52.217; 27.100
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Łachwa Ghetto
Nazi ghetto
Lakhva (Łachwa) location east of Brześć Ghetto and Sobibor extermination camp during World War II
Łachwa Ghetto map
Łachwa Ghetto is located in Belarus
Łachwa Ghetto
Location in modern day Belarus
Coordinates52°13′N 27°6′E / 52.217°N 27.100°E / 52.217; 27.100
Known forThe Holocaust in Poland

Łachwa (or Lakhva) Ghetto was a

Nazi ghetto in Łachwa, Poland (now Lakhva in Belarus) during World War II. The ghetto was created with the aim of persecution and exploitation of the local Jews.[1] The ghetto existed until September 1942. One of the first Jewish ghetto uprisings had happened there.[2]

Background

The first Jews settled in Łachwa,

Luninets-Rivne extended to Łachwa, helping local economies withstand the downturn. In 1897 there were 1,057 Jews in the town.[3]

After the formation of

Belorussian SSR
.

Ghetto history

Dov-Berl Lopatin

On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Two weeks later on 8 July 1941, the German Wehrmacht overran the town. A Judenrat was established by the Germans, headed by a former Zionist leader, Dov-Berl Lopatin [he].[4][2] Rabbi Hayyim Zalman Osherowitz was arrested by the police. His release was secured later, only after the payment of a large ransom.[5]

Yitzhak Rochczyn (or Icchak Rokhchin), leader of the Lachwa ghetto underground, commander of the uprising

On 1 April 1942, the town's Jewish residents were forcibly moved into a new ghetto consisting of two streets and 45 houses, and surrounded by a barbed wire fence.[6][7] The ghetto housed roughly 2,350 people, which amounted to approximately 1 square metre (11 sq ft) per person.[5]

Uprising and massacre

The news of massacres of the Jews committed throughout the region by German

Einsatzgruppe B soon reached Łachwa. The Jewish youth organized an underground resistance under the leadership of Icchak Rochczyn [pl] (also spelled Yitzhak Rochzyn or Icchak Rokhchin), the head of the local Betar group. With the assistance of Judenrat, the underground managed to stockpile axes, knives, and iron bars, although efforts to secure firearms were largely unsuccessful.[5][6][7]

By August 1942, the Jews in Łachwa knew that the nearby ghettos in Łuniniec (

Einsatzgruppe killing squad with 200 Belarusian and Ukrainian auxiliaries surrounded the ghetto. Rochczyn and the underground wanted to attack the ghetto fence at midnight to allow the population to flee, but others refused to abandon the elderly and children. Lopatin asked that the attack be postponed until the morning.[5][7][8][9]

On 3 September 1942, the Germans informed Dov Lopatin that the ghetto was to be liquidated, and ordered the ghetto inhabitants to gather for "resettlement". To secure the cooperation of the ghetto's leaders, the Germans promised that the members of Judenrat, the ghetto doctor and 30 laborers (whom Lopatin could choose personally) would be spared. Lopatin refused the offer, reportedly responding: "Either we all live, or we all die."[5][6][7]

When the Germans entered the ghetto, Lopatin set fire to the Judenrat headquarters, which was the signal to commence the uprising.

Soviet partisan units, most of the others were eventually tracked down and killed. Approximately 90 residents of the ghetto survived the war.[6]
Dov Lopatin joined a partisan unit and was killed on 21 February 1944 by a landmine.

Aftermath

The

Luninets district of Brest Region in sovereign Belarus.[10][11]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-61069-879-5
    .
  2. ^
    Encyclopedia Judaica
    , 2nd ed., Volume 12, pp. 425–426 (Macmillan Reference USA, 2007)
  3. ^ a b "Łachwa". History of the Jewish community (in Polish). Warsaw: Virtual Shtetl, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 2012. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ https://www.partisans.co.il/Site/site.card.aspx?id=4018 [דב – ברל לופטין]
  5. ^ a b c d e Pallavicini, Stephen and Patt, Avinoam. "Lachwa", An Encyclopedic History of Camps, Ghettos, and Other Detention Sites in Nazi Germany and Nazi-Dominated Territories, 1933–1945: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-8052-3593-0
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e Lachva, Multimedia Learning Centre: The Simon Wiesenthal Center (last accessed 30 September 2006, no archive). Timeline of the Holocaust.
  8. ^ This Month in Holocaust History: September 3, 1942.
  9. ^ Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority; accessed 27 April 2014.
  10. ^ Sylwester Fertacz (2005). "Carving of the Poland's new map" [Krojenie mapy Polski: Bolesna granica]. Magazyn Społeczno-Kulturalny Śląsk. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2017 – via the Internet Archive.
  11. ISBN 978-0-306-81650-5
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ghetto Lachva (Luniniec District).

Pre-war Polish topographic maps showing Łachwa

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