Siedlce Ghetto
Siedlce Ghetto | |
---|---|
the Holocaust in occupied Poland | |
Also known as | Siedlce Ghetto |
Location | Siedlce, German-occupied Poland |
Date | June 1941 – November 1942 |
Incident type | Imprisonment, starvation, mass shootings, mass deportations |
Organizations | Nazi SS |
Victims | 12,000–17,000 Polish Jews; an unknown number of Roma people |
Memorials | The Jewish cemetery in Siedlce |
The Siedlce Ghetto (
Over 1,500 persons were temporarily spared death in order to continue supplying slave labour for the five camps set up locally. They were deported to Treblinka from the so-called "little ghetto" before the end of 1942.[2] Only a few hundred Jews survived in hiding until the German withdrawal from Siedlce.[2]
History
Prior to the invasion of Poland, Jews constituted around 50 percent of the town's population of 30,000 inhabitants.[2] Jewish life in Siedlce experienced a revival in the interwar period. Many Jewish organizations sprung up, as well as printing presses, book stores and commercial establishments; there were several dozen Jewish bakeries, mills, metal shops, and jewelries. Almost all commerce was in the Jewish hands, sparking occasional labour disputes.[4]
During the
Over a thousand Jews expelled from
Life in the Ghetto
Conditions in the ghetto were appalling, with grossly insufficient quantities of food. At one point, 15 people lived in single rooms without sanitation. Jews were not allowed to own fur products. People trying to cross the fence illegally were shot in the back by the dozen.[2] A typhus epidemic broke out in the winter of 1941–42. There were five labour camps set up by the Germans in the vicinity of the ghetto.[2]
- Camp I – Army Food Storehouse No. 6 (Armeeverpflegungslager, A.V.L.)[c] at the Polish Army base, with the active labour force of 100 prisoners (1940–42). The total number of Jews who passed through the camp was around 5,000.[2]
- Camp II – The Reckmann Construction (close to the fire station). Active labour force: 500 prisoners (1941–43). The total number of 15,000 Jews passed through the facility; decimated by epidemic of typhus and scarlet fever. Remaining prisoners were shot on site during camp liquidation.[2]
- Camp III – Building Inspectorate No. 8 "Kiesgrube" (at the Łuków road). Active labour force: 300 prisoners (1941–43), housed in two barracks; with 250 grams of bread and 1 litre of soup per day. One prisoner is known to have survived.[2]
- Camp IV – Wolfer and Göbel Road Construction (10 barracks, next to Brzeska Street). Active labour force: 2,000 prisoners (1941–42). Counting in the ill persons, released for threat of an epidemic, as well as Jewish men brought in from other settlements – not from the ghetto – some 20,000 Jews passed through the camp.[2]
- Camp V – "Bauzug", at the railway station. Active labour force: 100 prisoners repairing railway tracks (1942–43).[2]
In early 1942 the
Ghetto liquidation
Around 10,000 Jews were herded into the square on 22 August, including all captives brought on foot by Orpo from the transit ghettos in three nearby settlements;[d][10] 500 men were selected to go back to their work camps.[6] The rest were made to sit on the ground overnight, tormented and shot at. The next day they were assembled into columns and marched to the train station in utter terror; the connecting streets were full of dead bodies. The Jews were crammed into awaiting freight cars (pictured) and sent to Treblinka, 62 kilometres (39 mi) distance.[e][6]
While the Jews from out of town were gathered at the square on the first day of roundups, local Jews were forced into the cemetery on Szkolna Street.
By 27 August 1942, the ghetto was no more.
The Siedlce Jewish community was not restored after Nazi defeat, and the town's later history lacked the hitherto conspicuous Jewish component. Survivors of the town's population established an association in Israel which in 1956 published a comprehensive memorial book on the community's history.[15] One of the survivors, Yisrael Kravitz, published his memoires in 1971 as the Five Years of Living Hell under Nazi Rule in the City of Siedlce.[16]
Escape and rescue attempts
Throughout the existence of the ghetto, there were numerous
Young
On 17 December 1943 10 people were shot. One of the reasons was hiding of Jews.[5]
See also
- Timeline of Treblinka extermination camp, deportations: 22 August (Siedlce: 5,000 – Łosice: 3,500 – Mordy: 3,800), 26 September (Siedlce: 5,000), and 30 November, 1942 (Siedlce: 1,700) with references and supplementary data.
Notes
- ^ Google Maps, Warsaw–Siedlce: 92.4 km via DK2 E30, 1 h 19 min without traffic. Previously: 113 km via DW803.
- ^ Map of the Siedlce Ghetto before and after August 1942 deportations with location of Umschlagplatz. Source: DeathCamps.org.
- ^ National Archives and Records Service, German military symbols and abbreviations: Armecverpflegungslager, Washington 1978, Library of Congress, p. ix (11/306 in PDF). Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- ^ They came from transit ghettos set up at the following locations; for the Łosice area, one in Łosice holding local Jews and families from Huszlew, Olszanka, and Świniarów; the second one for the Sarnaki area with Jews from Sarnaki, Górki, Kornica, Łysów; and third for the Mordy area, with prisoners from Mordy, Krzesk-Królowa Niwa, Przesmyki, Stok Ruski, and Tarków.
- ^ Google Maps, Siedlce–Treblinka: 62.2 km via DK63 and on to DW627, 1 h 7 min without traffic.
- SS Battalion Streibel blended with the civilian population in West Germany and disappeared from sight.[11]
References
- ^ a b c Przemysław Maksymiuk (2015). "History of Jewish community in Siedlce". Miejsca martyrologii. Wirtualny Sztetl (Virtual Shtetl), Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich. Archived from the original on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2015 – via Internet Archive.
W sierpniu 1941 r. Niemcy utworzyli getto, w którym zgromadzili ponad 12 tys. Żydów.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Edward Kopówka with English translation by L. Biedka (2007), Siedlce Ghetto. H.E.A.R.T, Holocaust Research Project.org. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ Museum of the History of the Polish Jews. See also: statistical data at "Getta Żydowskie," by Gedeon, (in Polish) and "Ghetto List"by Michael Peters of ARC. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ Edward Kopówka. "Political aspirations of Jews during the period 1918–1939". The Jews in Siedlce 1850–1945 (ibidem). Chapter 5, pp. 63–93.
- ^ )
- ^ a b c Jewish Virtual Library, Siedlce, Poland. Virtual Jewish World. Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica; Sefer Yizkor li-Kehillat, Siedlce li-Shenat Arba Esreh le-Ḥurbanah (Yid., 1956). Retrieved 30 October 2015.
- ^ Edward Kopówka, Appendix 5. Map of the Ghetto in Siedlce. The Jews in Siedlce 1850–1945, pp. 175–226 (ibidem).
- ^ Memorial Museums.org (2013). "Treblinka Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom". Remembrance. Portal to European Sites of Remembrance. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
- ^ Edward Kopówka (4 February 2010). "The Memorial". Treblinka. Nigdy wiecej, Siedlce 2002, pp. 5–54. Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom at Treblinka. Division of the Regional Museum in Siedlce (Muzeum Walki i Męczeństwa w Treblince. Oddział Muzeum Regionalnego w Siedlcach). Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2015 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ ISBN 978-3506770431.
- ^ ARC (2005). "SS Training Camp". Trawniki. ARC. Retrieved 1 November 2015. Source: Gutman, Arad, Kuwalek.
- ^ Krzysztof Bielawski, Siedlce: Cmentarz żydowski – miejsce masowych egzekucji i pochówku ofiar Zagłady. Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich, Virtual Shtetl. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- ^ Dr Władysław Stefanoff (27 March 1994), Siedlecki transport. Reprint from Tygodnik Siedlecki weekly, 27 March 1994. Retrieved 3 November 2015. (in Polish)
- ^ Samuel Willenberg (1992), Revolt in Treblinka. Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, p. 47. Book snippet view.
- ^ Wolf Yesni (ed.) "Memorial to the Siedlce Community – 14 Years Since its Destruction" (in Yididsh), 1956
- ^ Jewish Siedlce Archived 2021-08-12 at the Wayback Machine ,י.קראוויץ, "החיים בגיהנום, חמש שנים תחת שלטון הנאצים בעיר שדליץ", תשל"א
- ^ Dr. Shmuel Krakowski, Difficulties in Rescue Attempts in Occupied Poland. Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine Yad Vashem. Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, pp. 1–4 in PDF. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
- ^ a b Teresa Torańska (November 2008), Rodzina Osińskich. Sprawiedliwy wśród Narodów Świata. Tytuł przyznany. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
- ^ Irena Sendler (29 April 2003), Julian Grobelny i jego żona Helena, FKCh "ZNAK" 1999–2008. Retrieved 5 November 2015 via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b Cypora (Jablon) Zonszajn in Siedlce, Poland. Photo Archives, #71475. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Zofia Glazer. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
- ^ a b Zuzanna Schnepf (October 2007), Rodzina Zawadzkich. Sprawiedliwy wśród Narodów Świata. Tytuł przyznany. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
- ^ Zuzanna Schnepf (October 2007), Glazer Zofia. Sprawiedliwy wśród Narodów Świata. Tytuł przyznany. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 5 November 2015.