CHAPTER TWO
Consequent to the invasion of Poland during the Second World War the Nazi authorities established ghettos throughout occupied Europe for the purpose of segregating and confining Jews, Romani, and Sinti, (into small sections of cities and towns (the latter
2 were mostly segregated into camps, a smaller number into ghettos), in order to facilitate their exploitation. German authorities referred to these places as the Jewish Quarter. There were 3 main types of ghettos:
1. Closed Ghettos were sealed off by walls, or fences with barded wire.
2. Open Ghettos contained no walls or fences, but there were limitations regarding entry and exit.
3. Destruction Ghettos were sealed off and had a lifespan of 2 to 6 weeks. The Germans and/or their collaborators sent off or shot the people therein.
The emergence of Nazism was catastrophic to Jews in much of Europe. Within weeks after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis began to select sections of sizeable Polish cities and towns as explicitly Jewish. Thereafter, the Germans began a massive plan of action to expel Jews from their homes and businesses through compulsory removal. Whole Jewish communities were deported into sealed off zones by train. The enforcers were members of the Order Police Battalions (militarized units of the Order Police-uniformed police). Ghettos were used to isolate and control.
The first ghetto was established on October 8, 1939 at Piotrkow Trybunalski. By January 1940, the entire Jewish population of the city had been sent to the ghetto. The 3 most renowned ghettos were at Lodz, Warsaw, and Krakow. Lodz was established in April 1940, Warsaw, in October 1940, and Krakow in March 1941. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941; when they set their mind on it the Nazis worked very hard and fast to attain their final solution. The typical Jewish ghettos were sealed off from Gentiles and at times, other Jews. During the Second World War, the Nazis established more than 400 Jewish ghettos,
none of them for the benefit of the Jews.
The word ‘ghetto’ traces its origin to the name of the Jewish section of Venice, Italy (Borghetto). In 1516, Venetian authorities forced the city’s Jews to live in a specific section of the city. Soon, other European authorities established their own Jewish ghettos; the Austrian Emperor did so in Frankfurt, Prague, Rome, and other cities. Ghetto-ization usually lasted a short period of time, some for only a few days, but others remained for months or years.
In late 1941, as part of the Final Solution (the Nazi plan to eradicate European Jewry), the elimination of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghettos began through large-scale executions (mass graves); or were deported to killing centres, labour camps, or concentration camps. Regarding the sending of Jews to the camps, the Nazis usually lied, claiming that they were sending the hapless victims east, to labour, a better life. The truth is, many were sent to forced labour camps, many of those who were deemed unable to work were sent to the gas chambers or killed by bullet. Not all victims were fooled, as stories of atrocities sometimes reached the ghettos. Overwhelmingly, there wasn’t much the victims could do, at its peak the German Military was by far the most powerful military in Europe, and was extremely ruthless. Many victims were killed in the manner you or I would kill a cockroach, without shedding a single tear. No, maybe worse, we’d kill a roach without sadistic pleasure.
Throughout the process Jews could be killed individually, for insubordination, attempted escape, smuggling, as part of collective punishment, or just for the fun of it. If a person couldn’t work for the betterment of the Nazis and their collaborators, his or her life was worth nothing. In August 1944, the Germans finished destroying the last major ghetto,located in Lodz. Lodz Ghetto contained approximately 155,000 people, nearly one-third of the city’s population. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest in Poland, it contained a whopping 450,000 people packed into an area of 1.3 square miles. Hundreds of people living in a small building, several families living in one apartment, unreliable or no plumbing; it was a common occurrence for people to toss human waste into the streets. Naturally, the stress level could reach incredible levels; many suicides occurred. Children became orphans, many had to take care of younger siblings. Street peddlers, adults and children alike, sold armband patches, bedsheets, newspapers, candy, hot drinks, and more.
The Nazis believed that the ‘Aryan Peoples or Race’ was superior to all others. The Jews were considered inferior, sub-humans. Irrespective of the Nuremberg Racial Laws absolutely prohibiting relations between the superior Arians and non-Aryans, inter-racial relations did occur; most of those between Arians and ‘sub-humans’ fall under the category of rape. There was a period of time when it was dangerous for a Jewish woman to be on the streets of Warsaw and elsewhere in Poland.
“One incident, details of which have been checked, occurred in Warsaw. German Army officers took over an apartment at 8 Piusa Street which had belonged to M. Szereszewski, prominent Warsaw Jew who is now a refugee outside Poland. Officers and soldiers then carried out a raid, in broad daylight, on Jewish houses in a nearby street and seized about 40 girls, most of them between the ages of eighteen and twenty, and transported them to this apartment. The girls were then stripped and were ordered to perform nude dances. Afterwards all of them were violated and they were held in the apartment until the early hours of the morning.” (January 15, 1940; Nazi Troops Rape 40 Jewish Girls in Warsaw; Jewish Telegraph Agency).
High-ranking Nazi officials were believed that Jews would succumb to the horrible living conditions in the ghettos, including deficiency of food, water, living space, and human rights. Commonly, ghettos were very overcrowded, unsanitary, with widespread hunger and starvation, fuel shortages, extreme winters without the proper clothing, diseases and epidemics, in particular typhus and cholera. People on the outside were usually reluctant to help.
“Jews are forbidden to leave the ghetto. on penalty of being shot on sight, while Poles are prohibited from sheltering, feeding or otherwise helping Jews fleeing the ghetto. Non-Jews must immediately report all such refugees to the Nazi authorities or suffer a fine up to 10,000 zlotys.” (July 30, 1941, 200 Jews Dying Reported Dying Monthly in Warsaw Ghetto from Epidemics; Jewish Telegraph Agency). Note: The title of the article indicates 200 dying monthly, however, the article indicates 2000.
Most of the apartments in the Warsaw Ghetto had no heating, thereby draining residents of physical and mental energy. To make matters worse, Nazi officials decided, in their warped mindset, that the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto could live on a food allotment of 300 calories per day; Poles received about 635 calories, Germans 2,310. Note that starvation drastically reduces the body’s immune response, thereby opening the door to serious diseases and other medical complications. Naturally, there were many incidents of food theft; violence and killing for food (even for a minute quantity), and taking food from a deceased person. Emaciated, starving beggars were a common sight, and so were dead bodies on the streets, creating a rancid scent.
Lack of actual water, or clean water was another problem. The cramped living conditions increased likelihood of contracting a contagious disease or something simple like the common cold; rats, mites, lice, bedbugs, and roaches were an ever-present problem. Eva Galler, a Polish Jew and survivor of the Lubaczow Ghetto and Belzec Concentration Camps, described the starvation and disease that was a normal occurrence in the ghettos:
“It was cold. In one corner there was a little iron stove but no fuel. We were not given enough to eat. The children looked through the garbage for food. There was not enough water to drink. There was one well in the backyard, but it would not produce enough water for everybody. To be sure to get water you had to get up in the middle of the night. Once I had a little water to wash myself, and my sister later washed herself in the same water. Some people started to eat grass. They would swell up and die. Because of the unsanitary conditions people got lice and typhus. My brother Pinchas got night blindness from lack of vitamins. Every day a lot of people died. It was a terrible situation. People were depressed. There was nothing to do. They waited and hoped and prayed.” (The Holocaust: The Ghettos; mattsholocaustproject.webs.com).
Jews were forced to wear identifying badges or armbands with yellow stars of David on them. The Judenrat (Jewish Council) and Ghetto Police maintained order in the ghettos and had the unenviable task of easing deportations to the extermination camps.
‘Illegal activities’ were still performed. Food smuggling was common. A special opening/s in the ghetto wall, food hidden within larger cargo, bribing a guard, or in some cases, food tossed into the ghetto by non-ghetto residents. Youth movements, cultural activities including plays, concerts, etc. These activities occurred with or without permission from the Jewish Council. The outside world had its share of anti-Semitism The Nazis weren’t always the worst haters of Jews.
“Until this morning, what I still had was confidence in the Poles; now I don’t even have that. I have been to Krzemionki today, where I was passing by bricklayers, and they took some lime and sprayed me with it ... I had plenty of lime in my hair, on my dress, all over my head, arms and legs, and that lime burnt my skin. And those bricklayers laughed. It’s really bad to be a Jew,” Renia Knoll, aged 14. ( Stories from Inside the Krakow Ghetto; charterforcompassion.org).
Ghetto uprisings were an array of revolts that occurred between 1941 1943, against the Nazis and their collaborator. The ghetto combatants took up arms during the most murderous period of the Jewish Holocaust, Operation Reinhard (the extermination plan). Jewish armed resistance occurred in dozens of locations on both sides of the Polish-Soviet border. Nazi reprisals were brutal.
The Bedzin Ghetto (also spelled Bendzin Ghetto) was a Nazi ghetto established during the Second World War for Polish Jews in Bendzin, Poland. The Jewish Quarter was established in July 1940, the population of which was 30,000; 20,000 were from Bedzin, 10,000 were expellees from nearby communities. Many of the physically abled poor had to work in German military factories before being shipped aboard trains to nearby concentration camps at Auschwitz where they were put to death en masse.
The Jewish presence in Bedzin traces its origin to the Middle Ages. A high point in Bedzin Jewish life and activities was in the late 19th Century, nearly 80 percent of the town’s inhabitants were Jews. During the German-Soviet invasion of Poland, the German military occupied the region in early September 1939. A few days later, the first severe economic sanctions were forced onto Bedzin. On September 9th, the Bedzin Synagogue (some sources claim September 8) was burned during prayer services. On the same day, the first large-scale murder of Bedzin Jews occurred, taking the lives of 40 prominent Jews.
A month later, Hitler announced that Bedzin would be incorporated into the German annexed territories. Order Police Battalions began to expel Jewish families from all communities in the surrounding areas, increasing the population of Bedzin Jews to 30,000. All Jews were forced to live in 2 poverty-stricken areas, Kamionka and Mala Srodula beside the Sosnowiec Ghetto. The ghettos were guarded by Jewish Police and had no physical barriers to the outside world.
From the occupation of Bedzin until May 1942, around 4,000 Jews were sent to slave labour camps. Most Bedzin Jews were killed during Operation Reinhard, they were sent to Nazi death camps, in particular to the nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers. August 12, 1942 was the largest deportation day, all the Jews were concentrated at Bedzin’s 2 football fields (soccer fields). Following a selection process that took several hours, 5,000 people were sent to their deaths. Rutka Lasier, who was chosen for deportation to a labour camp, miraculously escaped by leaping out of the first floor barrack she was in. As written in Rutka’s diary:
„I have surely seen enough misery that even a pen cannot describe. Young children lying on the grass wet from the rain. Storm raged over us. The police beat so badly and shot. ... I saw myself when a soldier snatched a several-month-old baby from its mother’s hands and with all his strength, hit its head against a lamppost. The brain splattered on the tree, the mother got an attack, I am writing about it as if nothing had happened, as if I were some experienced military person accustomed to atrocity, and I’m still young, I’m fourteen years old, and I haven’t seen much in life, and I’m already so indifferent. ... Ha, ha, you can go crazy if you remember it all”. (By Cyryl Skibinski, August 23, 2013; THE BEDZIN GHETTO. WE REMEMBER; JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE).
In early August 1943, the Germans initiated the final extermination phase of the Bedzin Ghetto residents; it took longer than expected. The Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB)Bedzin chapter, initiated an uprising, like that in Sosnowiec, against the German occupiers. The ZOB was established in mid-1942 (other sources claim 1941) in Poland, influenced by Mordechai Anielewicz. The objectives of the ZOB was Jewish self-defence and armed resistance against the Germans.
Weapons for the Bedzin uprising were acquired from the Jewish underground in Warsaw. Pistols, hand-grenades, and any other weapons were smuggled in dangerous train rides. Edzia Pejsachson was caught smuggling weapons, she was tortured to death. Molotov cocktails and other bombs were manufactured in Bedzin. The weapons were hidden until the right moment.
A number of partisans stood their ground in a bunker at Podsiadly Street. All of the partisans were killed when they ran out of ammunition. The fighting began on August 3, 1943, lasting for a number of days. Soon thereafter, the ghetto was liquidated.
Frumka Plotnicka, previously a partisan in the Warsaw Ghetto, who was transferred to the Bedzin Ghetto, was the leader and initiator of the uprising. She died on August 2, 1943, at 29 while fighting the Nazis. Plotnicka was a Socialist Zionist youth leader who took part in the resistance using aliases to travel throughout Nazi-occupied Poland as a courier and carrier of weapons. She also taught other resistance fighters how to manufacture additional weapons. She witnessed many trains carrying people to their deaths, and reported on many ghetto liquidations. She was a a hero to many.
“Jews would flock around her {Frumka Plotnicka} from all sides. One would ask her if he should return home or continue his way eastward to the Soviet-dominated provinces. Another would come in search of a hot meal or a loaf of bread for his wife and children she was a devoted mother to them all. She had an extremely positive influence on the larger Jewish community in Warsaw. The fact that many of its former leaders had deserted the city, and she had chosen to return, greatly impressed the Jewish community workers.”–Zivia Lubetkin (By Lawrence Bush, August 2, 2016; August 3: Frumka Plotnicka and the Bedzin Ghetto Uprising; Jewishcurrents.org).
The Bialystok Ghetto uprising was an armed rebellion against the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. The uprising began on August 16, 1943. It was massive and intense, only exceeded in Nazi-occupied Poland, by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The Bialystok Ghetto was established by the Germans in August 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Nearly 50,000 Jews from the city and surrounding areas were crammed into a small area of Bialystok. The ghetto had 2 sections, divided by the Biala River. Most of the Jews in the Bialystok ghetto worked in forced-labour assignments, in particular, large textile factories. A number of Jews were assigned to labour outside of the ghetto.
Nazi brutality was apparent from the start. Upon entering Bialystok on June 27, 1941, troops (Order Police Battalion 309) corralled hundreds of Jews into a Synagogue and then set it on fire, a day known as ‘Red Friday’ by the Jewish community . Miraculously, there were a few survivors. The following week, more than 5,000 Jews were shot in the streets.
In February 1943, nearly 10,000 Bialystok Jews were sent to the Treblinka killing centre; they were placed in a central transit camp before deportation. Many individuals were too weak, or for some reason or another could not travel; they were shot. The able-bodied were sent to the Majdanek camp. At the camp, another examination of work ability was conducted; a number of people were sent to other camps. More than 1,000 children were sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto, a German-occupied area (Bohemia) in what was then Czechoslovakia. Later, they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, they were killed.
On the night of August 16, 1943, when there was little hope of survival or escape, hundreds of Polish Jews began an armed uprising targetting the troops, including SS, aided by Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Latvian auxiliaries involved in the destruction of the ghetto. The resistance fighters were lightly armed; a machine gun, rifles, dozens of pistols, Molotov cocktails, and a number of bottles containing acid.
“The Germans, having the experience gained in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, were well prepared for the elimination of the Białystok Jewish communities. ‘The fight is uneven. About 300 poorly armed Jews fighting against the SS troops consisting of over three thousand soldiers armed only with machine guns,’ wrote [Szymon] Datner. ‘To the fight against the Jewish fighters they added also armoured cars, light tanks and… aircraft.'” —Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. (By Lawrence Bush, August 15, 2014; August 16: The Bialystok Ghetto Uprising; Jewishcurrents.org).
The fighting went on for several days, in an attempt to break out of the ghetto and combine forces with partisans in the surrounding forests, several dozen were able to escape. Hundreds of resistance fighters were killed in the fighting, and more than 70 captured fighters were killed by the Germans. The Bialystok resistance movement was formed by Mordechai Tenenboin-Tamarof, establishing the Anti-Fascist Fighting Bloc. Irrespective of the heroic actions of the resistance fighters, the deportations continued. The Red Army liberated Bialystok in August 1944.
The Czestochowa Ghetto uprising in Poland was a revolt targetting the German Military occupiers. The uprising occurred in late June 1943, resulted in the killing of about 2,000 Jews. The ghetto was set up following a day called Bloody Monday; 300 of Czestochowa’s Jews were killed by the Nazis. The population of the city at the time was 130,000 140,000, of which around 30,000 were Jews. The ghetto was operational from September 3, 1939 until its liberation by the Soviet Army in January of 1945.
The prisoners of the ghetto had to work in slave labour factories, for the benefit of their German occupiers. The HASAG pelcery was the largest forced labour camp in Czestochowa, containing about 5,000 local and Lodz Jews. In total an estimated 40,000 Polish Jews from the area were sent to Treblinka extermination camp.
The Czestochowa Judenrat was set up on September 16, 1939. It was headed by Leon Kopinski. In early October 1942 every member of the Judenrat was sent to Treblinka, except Kopinski and B. Kurland. Kopinski was shot and killed after the deportation. Kurland became head of the Judenrat until July 22, 1943, following baseless accusations by the Nazi occupiers, culminating in his execution at the cemetery. The Nazi occupiers were covering their tracks.
The first occurrence of an uprising was on January 3, 1943 at the so-called Large Ghetto. Shots were fired at the Warsaw Square (presently Ghetto Heroes Square), during the selection of about 500 Jews to be sent to the Radomsko Ghetto. Two Jews were killed in the shoot-out. The Nazis retaliated by executing 50 young Jews. The concluding liquidation of the so-called Small Ghetto (work camp for munitions factory) began in June 1943, following several months of large-scale executions at the cemetery, and deportation of Jews to slave labour camps.
A full-scale uprising occurred between June 23 26, 1943, coordinated by the Organization of Jewish Fighters. Although they were lightly armed, they fortified themselves in bunkers along Nadrzezna Street. The fighting, and later massacres cost the lives of 1,500 Jews. In 1943, commander of the uprising, Mordechaj Zylberberg, took his own life just before the Germans entered his bunker. The uprising ended on June 30, later 500 Jews lost their lives; some were burned alive others buried beneath the rubble. Many of the surviving Jews were imprisoned or sent away to a camp.
The Krakow Ghetto was one of five significant Jewish ghettos set up by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory. At the start of the Second World War the population of Jews in Krakow, Poland was about 60,000, nearly one-fourth of the city’s population. Krakow came under German occupation in early September 1939, and in the following month became the capital of the Generalgouvernment (the name given by the Germany occupiers to the puppet state that was formed from Central Poland during the Second World War).
The Krakow Ghetto was set up to take advantage of, frighten, and persecute local Polish Jews. It was also used as an assembly area for separating the able-bodied worker from those believed to be worthless, in material use and in value of life.
Rules and restrictions against Jews came into effect soon afterward. Jew were required to report for manual labour beginning in October 1939. In November they were required to set up a Judenrat; in December they were required to wear a Star of David to indicate their Jewish status and identity. Property had to be registered. The official sealing of the Krakow Ghetto occurred in March, 1941. This ghetto was somewhat unique in that unlike most Nazi-instituted ghettos that brought Jews into the enclosure, an estimated 40,000 were expelled in order to cleanse the seat of the Generalgouvernment of Jews. An estimated 20,000 Jews were left in the city.
The Krakow Ghetto was very cramped and was decreased in size on a regular basis. Expulsions from the Krakow Ghetto began in June 1942, an estimated 7,000 deportees were murdered, 6,000 in the Belzec death camp, and 1,000 in the Plaszow labour camp.
The Krakow Jewish underground resistance (predominately a youth movement The Fighting Organization of the Jewish Youth or Fighting Pioneers) was in operation from 1942 to late 1943. Akiva was a very important group that helped form the resistance, it unified with other groups including Dror-Freiheit, Hashomer HaTzair, and Hashomer HaDati. It took hard work and dedication to maintain any kind of a resistance against an extremely powerful and ruthless occupying force. Youth movements were either Communist, Socialist, or Zionist. They knew very well that they couldn’t defeat the Germans; they wanted justice for the countless murdered and harmed Jews. Non-violent acts of resistance included religion, done so secretly. Jozef Wulf, a member of Akiba wrote:
“None of us had received any schooling in arms or in organizing; nor did any of us have military experience. We did not have much confidence in our own strength, and at first we did not even consider it possible to link up with any of the Polish fighting organizations already in existence.” (Gusta Davidson Draenger, Justyna’s Narrative, p. 24).
“It is not easy to describe all the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to organize a Jewish resistance under Nazi occupation. Our work was a hundred times more difficult than the work of any other resistance group, because we had to conceal not only our underground activity but also, and even more urgently, our Jewish identities. Hence it may be said that the first thing the leaders had to do was to deny even to themselves the impossibility of the task before them, and to act in spite of the overwhelmingly unfavourable odds.” (ibid).
The Krakow Jewish resistance attacked the German occupiers at the Optima Factory, the Cosmo Club, the latter taking the lives of several Nazi notables. In addition, separate attacks were planned for December 24, 1942 at the Cyganeria Cafe’, Esplanada Cafe’, and Sztuka Theatre, and an officer’s club.
The Cyganeria Cafe’ attack was the most notable. Just before before Christmas German officers in Krakow shopped for Christmas presents to send back to their loved ones. The officers enjoyed themselves in cafe’s, theatres, and other venues of celebration. The Cyganeria Cafe’ attack took the lives of up to a dozen Germans. The Jewish attackers dressed up as Poles, making it look like the perpetrators were members of the Polish underground. Although the attacks were a success, the Germans retaliated by arresting most members of the underground. Furthermore, what was left of the Krakow Ghetto was liquidated in March 1943, many Jews were sent to Auschwitz.
The Lachwa (or Lakhwa) Ghetto was set up in early April 1942 by the Nazis, in Lachwa, Belarus. Between 1939-1941 the area was annexed by the Soviet Union. The Lachwa Ghetto uprising was the first major Jewish Ghetto uprising during the Second World War.
In the late 1930s Lachwa had an estimated population of 3,800, at the beginning of the war there were about 2,800 Jews in the town. In September 1939, 350 Jews who were able to escape Nazi-occupied Poland found refuge in Lachwa (they had no idea of what was soon to come).
German troops began their occupation of Lachwa on July 7, 1941. A Judenrat was set up, headed by former Zionist leader Dov Lopatin. Rabbi Hayyim Zalman Osherowitz was arrested by the Nazis, and was only released following a significant payoff (bribe).
In early April 1942, Lachwa’s Jewish inhabitants were sent to a new ghetto that was very small and cramped; it was sealed of by a barded wire fence, and was guarded by the police force consisting of Belarusian and Ukrainian residents. Jews had to wear an armband bearing a Star of David, and were conscripted for forced labour. Worse yet, the daily starvation ration amounted to 200 grams (7 oz.) of bread per day. Naturally, many residents sought any way possible to obtain additional food, including leaving the ghetto without permission; this was a crime punishable by death.
In August and September 1941, word of massacres perpetrated throughout the region by the Germans reached Lachwa. At the time of this terrifying news a number of local farmers had hitherto dug large pit