History of the Jews in Dęblin and Irena during World War II

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Coordinates: 51°33′48″N 21°51′53″E / 51.56333°N 21.86472°E / 51.56333; 21.86472
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Aerial photograph of a town and field
Bombing of Dęblin airfield on 3 September 1939. Pictured: Irena (top)—the ghetto was centered on the semicircle—the airfield (right) and military installations (left).

Thousands of Jews lived in the towns of

Opole and Warsaw ghettos. Conditions in the ghetto worsened in late 1941 due to increased German restrictions on ghetto inhabitants and epidemics of typhus and dysentery
.

The first deportation was on 6 May 1942 and took around 2,500 Jews to

arrived from Slovakia and hundreds more from nearby ghettos that had been liquidated.[b] In October that same year, the Irena ghetto was liquidated; about 2,500 Jews were deported to Treblinka extermination camp while some 1,400 Jews were retained as inmates of forced-labor camps in the town. Unusually, the labor camp operated by the Luftwaffe—employing, at its peak, about a thousand Jews—was allowed to exist until 22 July 1944, less than a week before the area was captured by the Red Army. One of the last Jewish labor camps in the Lublin District
, it enabled hundreds of Jews to survive the Holocaust. Some survivors who returned home were met with hostility, and several were murdered; all left by 1947.

Background

A line of Jewish men shown greeting Marshal Józef Piłsudski
Jews in Dęblin greet Polish Marshal Józef Piłsudski after his capture of Dęblin during the Polish–Soviet War, 1920.

Polish Air Force Academy,[7] whose airfield was one of the largest in Poland.[8] In 1936 and 1937, there were some incidents in which non-Jewish merchants vandalized their Jewish competitors' shops.[9]

German invasion

Market square in Dęblin during the German occupation

During the

Bełżec, and Pawłowice.[11]

At the end of the year, the German occupiers forced Jews to form a

David Silberklang, "Szymon Drabfisz" was the first chair and Teichman the second.[13]

Ghetto

map showing river and land
OpenStreetMap of Dęblin and environs, showing train station (upper left), Irena (labeled "Dęblin", right), airfield (green, lower right), Wieprz (bottom), Vistula (lower left), and Dęblin Fortress (left, in red)
External image
image icon Houses and people in the ghetto

A

open ghetto (there was no physical fence, although the penalty for unauthorized departure was death) consisting of six streets. Its boundaries were initially Okólna Street, the Irenka River, Bankowa, and Staromiejska Streets. Staromiejska Street was removed from the ghetto in September 1942; its residents moved to Bankowa. Initially, non-Jews were allowed to enter and perhaps live in the ghetto, so many of the Jews were able to survive by trading material goods for food with them.[11] A Polish-language secular school, run by Aida Milgroijm-Citronbojm, instructed 70 to 100 pupils.[11][15] The Jewish Ghetto Police maintained order in the ghetto, and on the outside it was guarded by a Sonderdienst ("Special Services") unit consisting of local Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. The Sonderdienst unit was known for beating, humiliating, and killing ghetto inmates.[11]

In late 1941, non-Jewish Poles were banned from entering the ghetto, resulting in waste piling up and typhus and dysentery epidemics. The sick were treated at a thirty-bed hospital run by Isaar Kawa, a doctor from Konin; with the help of non-Jewish doctors, medicines were imported from Warsaw.[14][11] Simultaneously, new restrictions were imposed by the Germans: the use of stoves was banned, winter clothing confiscated, and fuel imports forbidden.[15][11] More Jews began to leave the ghetto to obtain essentials, resulting in twenty young women being discovered outside the ghetto and killed.[16] Because conditions were better in Lublin District than in Warsaw, some Jews fled to towns there including Irena;[17] twenty Jews were executed for being unregistered refugees. The Judenrat's leadership was altered again as Drayfish was executed, accused of filing complaints with the Puławy County administration; he was replaced by the businessman Yisrael Weinberg.[16]

In March 1941, 3,750 Jews lived in the ghetto, including 565 who were not from the area. These consisted mainly of Jews expelled from

Slovak Jews arrived from Prešov.[16][18] Although they brought food with them, they were unused to the harsh conditions and many died of typhus due to the poor sanitation.[16][19] More than 2,000 Jews were brought to Irena from nearby towns, having survived the liquidation[b] of their communities because they had been selected to work. These included 300 people from Ryki, 300 from Gniewoszów and Zwoleń, and a group from Stężyca. Other Jews had entered the ghetto after escaping roundups in Baranów, Ryki, Gniewoszów, and Adamów (from early October). In August, 5,800 Jews were reported to be living in the ghetto, of whom only 1,800 were from Dęblin.[16]

Forced labor

Exhumed mass grave holding remains of Soviet soldiers at Stalag 307
Exhumed mass grave at Stalag 307 (Dęblin Fortress)
Furniture factory set up by the German Army in Dęblin Fortress

Until late 1942, Jews earned wages as forced laborers, except those who were conscripted by the municipality for tasks such as street cleaning or snow clearing. Some Jews worked for German companies such as Schwartz and

Soviet prisoners of war, from 10 July 1941.[15][21][22] An estimated 80,000 Soviet prisoners were imprisoned there; all died within a few months of starvation and disease.[21][23] The Jews who worked there saw prisoners held in worse conditions than their own.[24] The Jews from Dęblin and Irena tried to take the best jobs; 200 of the Slovak deportees ended up working for the municipality. An additional 200 of the Slovaks worked for the Schultz firm following an expansion.[16] Survivors recalled that although German soldiers supervising the forced laborers tended to treat them relatively well, some ethnic Polish supervisors beat Jews, and the Ukrainian guards at the railway project were especially harsh, threatening prisoners with death.[25]

In May 1941, in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Luftwaffe commissioned the firm Autheried to improve the airfield.

Lipowa 7 camp in Lublin,[11][26] and 500 ethnic Polish workers, worked twelve hours a day levelling the runway and building roads, walls, air-raid shelters, and earth fortifications. They also built a barbed-wire-enclosed complex adjacent to the runway for craftsmen to work in.[26] Following the completion of the project in October, the workers were dispersed to various projects around the town[clarification needed], an action which may have been related to the typhus epidemic.[11][26] Some of the Jews from Vienna stayed at the airfield, having obtained permits to work on gravel transportation and building fuel tanks; they were the nucleus for the later labor camp. After the first deportation from the Irena ghetto on 6 May 1942, additional Jews tried to secure permits, often obtained through bribery, to avoid deportation. By October 1942, the camp had 543 legal residents.[26] At this point there were five forced-labor camps around Dęblin: the Luftwaffe camp, the fortress, the train station (300 Jews), Lipova Street (200 Jews and ethnic Poles), and another near the municipal boundary (300 Jews).[27]

Deportation, murder, and liquidation

First deportation

External images
image icon Corpses left on the ground after the first deportation
image icon Judenrat official supervises the collection of bodies in a barn
image icon Removing the corpses in a cart through the unpaved streets of the ghetto

The first deportation was on 6 May 1942,

Sobibór extermination camp.[16][20] The victims were beaten, and those who could not keep up were shot. Only late in the night were the Jews selected for labor allowed to return home. Every family was affected.[32] After the deportation, the bodies of the dead were collected at the synagogue and removed from the ghetto in carts.[14]

During the next two days, more than four thousand Jews from north Puławy County—200 from Bobrowniki (6 May), 1,800 from Ryki (7 May), 125 from Stężyca (7 May), 1,500 from Baranów (8 May) and 500 from Łysobyki (8 May)—were also marched to Dęblin and deported to Sobibór.[33] This was half of a countywide extermination action in Puławy County—the first in a series of systematic, countywide deportations in the Lublin District as part of Operation Reinhard. The county's administrator, Alfred Brandt [de] ordered it shortly after Sobibór became operational; he was present in Dęblin during the deportation.[34][35]

Second deportation

External image
image icon Polish and Slovak Jews at the train station prior to deportation. Four Jews murdered during the deportation. Both photographs by Janusz Uklejewski [pl]

The next deportation, which coincided with the liquidation of the two remaining ghettos in Puławy (Opole and Końskowola),

gendarmes, Luftwaffe soldiers, and police auxiliaries rounded up the remaining Jewish population.[16] Many Jews tried to avoid the roundup and enter the Luftwaffe camp, which at that time had 543 official residents. Some were turned away by the Jewish police there. Israeli historian Talia Farkash estimates that about 500, including 60–90 young children, managed to get in, mostly by paying bribes.[16][38] Silberklang's estimate is that 1,000 Jews entered the camp, including 280 women and 100 children.[27] The Jewish elder, Hermann Wenkert, later claimed that if he had allowed non-registered Jews entry, and they were discovered, everyone in the camp would have been killed. Instead, he bribed the Germans to obtain legal permits for an additional 400 Jews, which were mostly given to the wives and children of current residents.[38]

Many of the Slovak Jews, not knowing what to expect, had lingered in the ghetto while packing their bags. About 215 to 500 Jews were shot and killed by the Ukrainians and Germans while the houses were being cleared.[19][16] Between 2,000[19] and 2,500 people were deported to Treblinka extermination camp; mostly the Slovaks.[16][37] Members of the Judenrat, Jewish police, and their families, about 100 in total, were retained to clean up the ghetto.[8][16] Perhaps another 100 Jews were hiding without permission in the ghetto.[8] On 28 October, the remaining Jews were sent to the Schultz labor camp, and the ghetto was officially liquidated. Either on that day or within the next few weeks, 1,000 people were removed from the labor camps, including the 200 workers at Dęblin Fortress and 200 to 500 of the Luftwaffe's workers.[8][16] They were deported to Końskowola[8] or Treblinka.[16]

After this, Farkash estimates that there were about 1,400 Jews were still alive in the labor camps around Irena.[8] Estimates of the number at the Luftwaffe camp range from 1,000[16] to 2,000,[27] with another 300 at a railway camp near the passenger station, and 120 at another camp near the railway loading station.[8] During May or July 1943, most of the remaining prisoners in the railway camps were deported to Poniatowa concentration camp via the transit ghetto in Końskowola; the rest were deported in late 1943.[8][16] Hundreds of Jews were still alive in the remaining labor camps in Puławy County, but they were murdered during Operation Harvest Festival (2–3 November 1943). This operation also killed the prisoners of Poniatowa but did not affect the Jews at the Luftwaffe camp in Irena,[39][40] who were unaware of it.[41] Following Operation Harvest Festival, there were ten labor camps for Jews in the Lublin District with more than 10,000 Jews still alive.[42]

Luftwaffe camp

Camp leader

External image
image icon The camp after liberation, photographed by Janusz Uklejewski [pl]
4 × 100 meters relay
(330 ft), August 1940
Polish Air Force Academy
in Dęblin, 1947

The camp leader (German:

collaborator.[43][44] When it was possible, Wenkert negotiated with the authorities and paid bribes to avoid punishment; he also consulted respected prisoners in cases where the matter had not come to German attention. However, when he thought there was no other option and the survival of the camp was in the balance, Wenkert turned Jews accused of wrongdoing over to the Germans even though he knew that this would result in their deaths.[45] In general, German-speaking Jews had a more positive impression of him than the local Jews, who spoke Yiddish.[46] According to Silberklang, both views of Wenkert may be true: that he tried to secure benefits for himself personally while also working to keep the other Jewish prisoners alive.[47]

Conditions

Conditions were relatively good compared to other camps.

kilocalories daily (enough to live), weekly baths, and medical care, and were allowed to practice their religion.[27][49] The presence of 100 young children—whose existence was justified as increasing the productivity of their parents—was particularly unusual and not matched elsewhere in the Lublin District after Operation Harvest Festival. Aida Milgroijm-Citronbojm continued the Polish-language school that she had run in the ghetto. The SS, who did not know about the children's existence, periodically conducted surprise inspections of the camp, during which the children had to hide.[50] According to Farkash, Wenkert's positive relationship with the camp command was partially responsible for the good conditions.[51] Wenkert managed to get religious Jews exempted from working on Shabbat and allowed a chevra kadisha society to operate, burying the dead according to Jewish law. In 1943, about 80 Jews (including Wenkert) received kosher food for the week of Passover.[44][52]

The camp had three German commanders, all at the rank of sergeant major: Kattengel (through March 1943), Dusy, and Rademacher (during the last two months). Although Kattengel was distrusted because he roamed the camp with a dog and whip, both Dusy and Rademacher were described positively by survivors. Dusy even arranged for one woman to receive treatment at a German hospital after she was badly injured. Wiszniewski, a local Volksdeutscher, was the lead foreman of the Jewish laborers and did not mistreat them. Autheried engineer Kozak brought food to the Jews he worked with.[53] The Slovak Jews at the camp were the last major group to survive of the almost 40,000 Slovak Jews deported to the Lublin District in 1942.[54][55] The Jews remaining in Prešov hired couriers (non-Jews from the Polish–Slovak border) to travel to the camp regularly until it was dissolved, carrying letters and bringing valuables and money. A committee was formed in the camp to distribute these among the Slovak Jews. Cases of theft by Polish Jews led to friction between the two communities.[56][54]

Despite the relatively good conditions, some Jews tried to escape because they feared that the camp would be liquidated. The Luftwaffe camp command imposed

firing squad for causing an accidental fire—but less so than other Nazi camps.[57] Reports of the Home Army from that time often described the local ethnic Polish population as hostile to "Jewish bands" which stole food and resources from Polish peasants; said reports, according to Zimmerman, therefore can be seen as reflecting "the eerie distance of mere observers".[58] According to Farkash, in 1943, Wenkert allowed a group of Jewish partisans seeking refuge from a hostile unit of the Polish Home Army resistance group into the camp.[45] Most Jews who tried to escape were captured, and others returned to the camp.[59] Several members of the Kowalczyk peasant family were honored as Righteous Among the Nations for sheltering nine Jews who had escaped from the Łuków ghetto and the Dęblin camp on their farm in Rozłąki [pl], from late 1943 to mid-1944.[60] Árpád Szabó, a Hungarian military doctor, was similarly recognized for smuggling a Slovak Jewish couple from the camp to Hungary.[61]

Liquidation

Plaque with Star of David and Hebrew letters
Memorial plaque at the former HASAG camp in Częstochowa

The camp was liquidated on 22 July 1944, the same day that the

Hugo Schneider AG plants. Some were deported to Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen in January 1945 while others were liberated by the Red Army.[64] About half survived.[16]

According to Farkash, the airfield camp in Irena is a "singular case" in the Lublin district and possibly in the entirety of occupied Poland.

Auschwitz-Birkenau.[70] Ninety-nine percent of the Jews from Lublin District were killed in the Holocaust,[71] but hundreds from Dęblin and Irena survived the war.[70]

Aftermath

Dęblin was liberated by the

1st Polish Army by 27 July 1944.[72] In 1945, Alfred Brandt was convicted and sentenced to death for his crimes by a Soviet military tribunal near Słupsk and executed by firing squad.[73] Some of the Jewish survivors, who attempted to return home in January 1945, were told by the local Milicja Obywatelska police chief that it was illegal for them to settle in the town[clarification needed].[74][75][76] In March 1945, survivors Łaja, Gitla and Fryda Luksemburg were murdered with the involvement of local police.[77][78] Other Jews received threatening letters.[78] Following the 1946 Kielce pogrom, a meeting in Dęblin was held to commemorate the victims. Locals interrupted the meeting with anti-semitic slogans.[79] By 1947, no Jews remained in the town[clarification needed],[78] which is still the case in the twenty-first century.[4] As of 2011, the Dęblin Synagogue [pl] was in poor condition and being considered for demolition.[80] A memorial plaque about the Irena ghetto was unveiled in Dęblin in 2015.[78]

Ignaz Bubis, a former prisoner of the ghetto,[8][16] was the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 1992 to 1999.[81]

Notes

  1. ^ a b The two municipalities, having long been considered one unit, were officially merged in 1953.[2]
  2. ^ a b Liquidation refers to the Nazi action of shutting down a ghetto, with the inhabitants forced to move, deported, or murdered nearby.[1]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Aronson & Longerich 2001, p. 194.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Crago 2012b, p. 636.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Yad Vashem 2009, p. 156.
  4. ^
    Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot. Archived
    from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  5. ^ Rubin 2006, pp. 89–90.
  6. ^ Rubin 2006, p. 90.
  7. ^ Protassewicz 2019, p. 210.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Farkash 2014, p. 63.
  9. ^ a b c Rubin 2006, p. 91.
  10. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 59.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Crago 2012b, p. 637.
  12. ^ Silberklang 2013, pp. 58–59.
  13. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 67.
  14. ^ a b c Yad Vashem 2009, p. 157.
  15. ^ a b c Rubin 2006, p. 92.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Crago 2012b, p. 638.
  17. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 196.
  18. ^ Büchler 1991, p. 166.
  19. ^ a b c Farkash 2014, p. 62.
  20. ^ a b c Farkash 2014, p. 61.
  21. ^ a b Snyder 2012, p. 180.
  22. ^ Silberklang 2013, pp. 274, 399.
  23. ^ Silberklang 2013, pp. 399–400.
  24. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 274.
  25. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 61, 70.
  26. ^ a b c d e f Farkash 2014, p. 64.
  27. ^ a b c d Silberklang 2013, p. 400.
  28. ^ Weinstein 2006, p. 459.
  29. ^ Musiał 2000, p. 244.
  30. ^ Crago 2012a, p. 608.
  31. ^ Yad Vashem 2009, p. 158.
  32. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 61–62.
  33. ^ Silberklang 2013, pp. 308, 317.
  34. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 60–61.
  35. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 309.
  36. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 60.
  37. ^ a b Silberklang 2013, p. 329.
  38. ^ a b Farkash 2014, p. 66.
  39. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 60–61, 63.
  40. ^ a b Silberklang 2013, p. 402.
  41. ^ a b c Silberklang 2013, p. 409.
  42. ^ a b Silberklang 2013, p. 365.
  43. ^ a b c Farkash 2014, p. 65.
  44. ^ a b Silberklang 2013, p. 401.
  45. ^ a b Farkash 2014, p. 67.
  46. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 66.
  47. ^ Silberklang 2013, pp. 401–402.
  48. ^ Rubin 2006, p. 93.
  49. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 78.
  50. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 72–73.
  51. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 69.
  52. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 73–74.
  53. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 69–70.
  54. ^ a b c Büchler 1991, p. 159.
  55. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 296.
  56. ^ a b Farkash 2014, p. 70.
  57. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 74–75.
  58. ^ Zimmerman 2015, pp. 213, 361.
  59. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 74.
  60. ^ "Kowalczyk family". The Righteous Among the Nations Database. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  61. ^ "Szabó Árpád". The Righteous Among the Nations Database. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  62. ^ a b Farkash 2014, p. 75.
  63. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 76–77.
  64. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 77.
  65. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 58.
  66. ^ Farkash 2014, p. 68.
  67. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 364.
  68. ^ Farkash 2014, pp. 68, 78.
  69. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 411.
  70. ^ a b c Farkash 2014, pp. 78–79.
  71. ^ Silberklang 2013, p. 431.
  72. ^ Weinstein 2006, p. 536.
  73. ^ Schmeitzner et al. 2015, p. 67.
  74. ^ Kopciowski 2008, p. 202.
  75. ^ Rice 2017, p. 29.
  76. ^ Koźmińska-Frejlak 2014, p. 154.
  77. ^ Krzyżanowski 2013, p. 253.
  78. ^ a b c d "Odsłonięcie tablicy pamiątkowej" [Unveiling of a commemorative plaque]. Miasto Dęblin (in Polish). 27 October 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  79. ^ Krzyżanowski 2020, p. 125.
  80. ^ Bergman & Jagielski 2014, p. 565.
  81. ^ Friedlander, Albert (16 August 1999). "Obituary: Ignatz Bubis". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.

Sources

Further reading

External links

51°33′48″N 21°51′53″E / 51.56333°N 21.86472°E / 51.56333; 21.86472

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