Stalin deportations - and the Big Flight from Barbarossa

Some data from some articles in the Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971

from Michael Palomino (2007)

10. Poland

Sep 1939: Jews driven out from the German sector to the Soviet sector

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<Regierungsbezirk Zichenau (Ciechanow). According to the 1931 census, there was a Jewish population of 80,000 in the area of this newly-created administrative district. In the first weeks of the occupation, a large number of Jews from the towns near the German-Soviet demarcation line, e.g., *Ostrow Mazowiecki, Przasnysz, *Ostroleka, and *Pultusk, were forced to cross over to the Soviet zone. Their expulsion was accompanied by acts of terror, such as forcing the Jews to cross the Bug or the Narew rivers and opening fire on them, so that some people drowned or were shot to death. This group shared the fate of all the other Polish refugees in the Soviet Union. At the end of February 1941, about 10,000 Jews from Plock and Plock county were driven out, first passing through the *Dzialdowo transit camp, where they were  tortured and robbed, and from there to various towns in the Radom district, where within a year most of them died of starvation and disease. In Ciechanow, Mlawa, Plonsk, Strzegowo, and Sierpc, the Jews were segregated into ghettos, along with the few Jews left in towns whose Jewish populations had largely been expelled to the Soviet Union in the fall of 1939. These ghettos situated in the administrative area of East Prussia, ruled by the notorious Erich Koch, endured particularly harsh and bloodthirsty treatment, and the murder of members of the Judenrat and ghetto police was a frequent occurrence. In the fall of 1942 the ghettos were liquidated and the Jews dispatched to *Treblinka.> (col. 756)

Sep 1939: Bialystok flooded by Polish Jewish refugees from German sector

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<The Bialystok province was divided into seven counties: Bialystok, Grodno, Bielsk, Podlaski, Grajewo, Lomza, Sokolka, and Volkovysk. The Bialystok district suffered two eruptions of war, on Sept. 1, 1939 [partition], and June 22, 1941 [NS occupation of the eastern part]. The first German occupation was restricted to the western part of the district and lasted only a fortnight, after which the area was turned over to the Soviets. The Soviet occupying forces imposed far-reaching changes in the economic, social, and political life of the Jews. The Jewish population of the district in September 1939 was estimated at 240,000-250,000. Later on, the district was flooded by a stream of refugees from the western and central part of Poland. Among the officials and specialists brought in from the Soviet Union, there were also a considerable number of Jews, and the total increase in population is estimated at 100,000. It may therefore be assumed that in June 1941 the district had a Jewish population of about 350,000.> (col. 769)

[The withdrawal of the Red Army and Big Flight from Barbarossa is not mentioned in the article].

<The second German invasion was accompanied by mass murders, carried out by the Einsatzkommandos comprising Tilsit police battalions [...] extermination camps [...] extermination campaigns.> (col. 769)

Sep 1939: Volhynia-Podolia flooded by Polish Jewish refugees from German sector - Stalin deportations

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<The 1931 census of the population in this area indicated about 300,000 Jews. The larger communities were Pinsk, Brest, *Kobrin, *Kovel, *Dubno, *Rovno, *Lutsk, *Ostrog, *Kremenets, and *Vladimir-Volynski. Here too, a large influx of refugees came from Poland shortly after the outbreak of the war, while a certain number of Jews were moved by the Soviets to other parts of the U.S.S.R., so that it was impossible to determine the size of the population in June 1941.

[The withdrawal of the Red Army and Big Flight from Barbarossa is not mentioned in the article].

A mass slaughter in this district was carried out mainly by Einsatzgruppe 'C', commencing with the German invasion.> (col. 771)

Sep 1939-June 1941: Jews in high positions in Eastern Poland stimulating anti-Semitism in Western Poland

<Anti-Jewish agitation among the Polish population was also fed by the reports of the situation of the Jews in Eastern Poland under the Soviet occupation, when Jews were appointed to official positions.> (col. 777)

<The Nazi propaganda machine [in the Western Poland part] cleverly exploited the anti-Semitism existing among the Polish population. Reviving the old Polish slogan of "Zydo-Komuna", they identified Jews with Communism and succeeded in further poisoning the prevailing anti-Jewish feelings among the Poles. As a result, Jews who had been in hiding on the "Aryan" side were denounced to the Nazis. In many places Poles not only assisted in the search for Jews, but joined the Nazis in torturing and killing them as well. The Polish police, with hardly any exception, took part in the "actions" and on several occasions were themselves in charge of rounding up the Jews and dispatching them to the death camps.> (col. 777)

1945: Encyclopaedia Judaica estimation of survived Polish Jews: 300,000 maximum

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<The number of Polish Jews who were saved by fleeing in September 1939 to the Soviet Union, to certain European countries, to Palestine, or to North and South America, or who survived the camps in Germany, is estimated at a maximum of 300,000 (250,000 of whom had fled to the U.S.S.R.).> (col. 771)

[Death in partisan units and the death in the Red Army are not mentioned].

1945: Encyclopaedia Judaica estimation of some 50,000 Jews hidden and protected

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<The activities of the "Council for Aid to Jews", which provided "Aryan" documents and shelter in Polish houses, rescued children, and extended financial aid, helped some 50,000 Jews. There were more than a few individual Poles who had the moral strength to overcome the fear of death (the punishment for giving refuge to Jews) and the pressure exerted on them by the prevailing anti-Jewish climate of opinion, to stretch out a helping hand to the persecuted Jews.Some of these Poles, along with their families, had to pay with their lives for the courage they displayed in aiding Jews.> (col. 777)

<When Poland was liberated in 1945, thousands of orphaned and abandoned Jewish children were wandering through villages and in the streets of the towns. Many were found in Polish homes and in convents. Some had been baptized, and some had been exploited by the peasants and a source of cheap labor. The official Jewish committees (komitety) established institutions for homeless children. Jewish parents applied to the Jewish organizations for help in finding children, who had been entrusted to non-Jewish families in order to save their lives but later disappeared without trace. Some Poles refused to return Jewish children, either because they had become attached to them or (col. 777)

because they demanded financial remuneration for maintaining the child and for the risk they had incurred in hiding Jews from the Germans. There were a few cases of Jewish children living under conditions of starvation and terror.> (col. 778)

since 1945: Polish Jews coming back from Soviet interior

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<With the mass repatriations from the Soviet Union, 31,700 children under 14 years of age returned to Poland, including many hundreds of orphans, who also needed immediate care. Three separate bodies worked to save Jewish children.> (col. 778)

<In addition to the 80,000 Jews already in Poland, over 154,000 Polish Jews were repatriated from the U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1946, bringing the total Jewish population of Poland close to 250,000. The Polish government and the Communist-dominated ruling party (the Polish Workers' Party - PPR) encouraged the Central Committee in its social and cultural activities and lent support to the Jewish efforts to establish new economic foundations and restore communal life. At the same time, the government placed no obstacles in the path of Jews who wished to emigrate. [...] The growth of the community by mass repatriation from U.S.S.R., led many Polish Jews in the immediate postwar period to believe that the conditions being created in the "new" Poland would enable them to live a free and full Jewish life.> (col. 779)

since 1945: Emigration of Polish Jews to Palestine and "USA"

from: Poland; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 13

<The Flight from Poland. The revival of a sound Jewish community life in Poland was the declared aim of those Jews who had been Communists before the war. They believed that the conditions were now ideal for the renewal of Jewish life and argued that a revived Jewish community would both demonstrate the vitality of the Jewish people and the failure of Nazism and other forms of ant-Semitism. The majority of Polish Jews, however, including those who were being repatriated from the Soviet Union, did not want to reestablish their lives in Poland, where the Nazis had found thousands of collaborators among the local population eager to cooperate in the extermination of the Jews. Moreover, pogroms continued even after the Nazi occupation ended. To most Polish Jews it was unthinkable to renew their life on the Polish soil soaked with the blood of millions of Jews. Thus tens of thousands of Polish Jews who fled from the U.S.S.R. and Poland made their way to Romania and Germany in the hope of reaching Palestine. After the *Kielce pogrom this exodus took on an organized and semi-legal character.> (col. 780)

<Jewish emigration from Poland (col. 780)

was motivated not only by the recent tragic past and by prewar Zionist education, but also by the continuation of a clear and present danger to the Jews. There were murderous attacks upon Jews on Polish roads, railroads, buses, and in the towns and cities. The murders were committed by members of Polish reactionary organizations, such as the NSZ (Narodowe Sioly Zbrojne). In cruelty and inhumanity their crimes often equaled those committed by the Nazis. Beginning in 1945 the assaults upon Jews swiftly assumed mass proportions. In two pogroms - one in Cracow on Aug. 11, 1945, and the other in Kielce on July 4, 1946 - thousands of Polish men, women, and children ran amock in the Jewish quarters, killing in Kielce 42 Jews and wounding 50 others. The attacks spread throughout the country, and in 1945 alone 353 Jews were reported murdered. The wave of anti-Jewish excesses continued well into 1946 and reached its climax in the Kielce pogrom. The government and the ruling party issued declarations designed to placate the Jews and there were public protests against anti--Semitism by intellecutals and large parts of the working class. Above all, the Jewish Communists and the Central Committee of Jews in Poland tried to reassure the Jews that the government would stamp out the anti-Semitic underground. The Jews, however, did not heed the exhortations and raced for the borders. By the end of 1947, only 100,000 Jews remained in Poland.> (col. 783)

-----

Chmielnik (Poland)

from: Chmielnik; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

<By 1921 the Jewish population numbered 5,908.

[1939: Chmielnik: Flight to Soviet sector]

Holocaust Period.

Prior to World War II Chmielnik had nearly 10,000 Jews, comprising 80% of the town's population. During the first months of the war, several hundred Jews, mostly young men and women, fled to the Soviet-held territories.

At the beginning of 1940, contact was made with the Warsaw underground leaders and Chmielnik was twice visited by Mordecai *Anielewicz, who came to help in the preparations for armed resistance.> (col. 484)

[1942: Chmielnik: Actions - flight to the forest - death by cold]

<On Oct. 1, 1942, about 1,000 young men and women were deported to the forced labor camp in *Skarzysko-Kamienna. Many succumbed to the inhuman conditions there, while others were deported to the forced labor camp in *Czestochowa (Hasag) and to camps in Germany. Only a handful survived.

On Oct. 3, 1942, about 1,000 Jews from Szydlow and 270 from *Drugnia (in the vicinity of Chmielnik) were taken to Chmielnik. Three days later, (Oct. 6, 1942), a special German and Ukrainian police force from Kielce conducted the Aktion in which about 8,000 Jews were deported to the *Treblinka death camp. On Nov. 5, 1942, a second deportation took place. This time, the remaining Jews aware of the fate of the deportees, fled into the forests or went into hiding within the ghetto. Only a few score of them survived in hiding until the liberation in January 1945. (col. 485)

[Chmielnik: Jews in the Red Army]

Those who left at the beginning of the war for the Soviet Union mostly joined the Soviet or the Polish army. Some of them rose to officer ranks and won the highest battle decorations, e.g., Capt. Moshe Kwasniewski, who parachuted into his native Chmielnik region to engage in guerrilla activities and Nahum Mail who commanded a tank unit. (col. 485)

[There is no death rate indicated].

[1945: Chmielnik: Jews coming back - new anti-Semitism - emigration]

A handful of Jewish survivors tried to resettle in Chmielnik after the war, but gave up the idea because of the hostility shown by the local Polish population. The last 14 Jews left in July 1946, after the *Kielce pogrom in which four Jews from Chmielnik were also killed. Organizations of Chmielnik Jews exist in Israel and in the United States, Canada, Argentina, France, Brazil, and England. A memorial book, Pinkas Chmielnik (Yid. and partly Heb.), was published in 1960.> (col. 485)

-----

Chelm (Poland)

from: Chelm; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

<The community numbered 1,500 in 1765, 1,902 in 1827 (68% of the total population), 2,493 in 1857 (68%), 7,226 in 1897 (56%), 13,537 in 1931 (46.5%), and approximately 15,000 (almost 50% of the town's population) in 1939.> (col. 372)

[Sep 1939: Chelm: The Big Flight from Barbarossa: Withdrawal of the Red Army - flight with the Red Army]

Holocaust Period.

On Sept. 14, 1939 the Soviet Army occupied Chelm, but withdrew two weeks later in accordance with the Soviet-German agreement. At least several hundred young Jews also left the town during the Soviet army's withdrawal.

The German army took over the city on Oct. 7, 1939, and immediately initiated a series of pogroms [...] IN May 1941 about 2,000 Jews from Slovakia were deported to Chelm [...] mass deportation [...] to Sobibor death camp [...] Only a handful of workers were left in the town's prison; of these 15 survived and were liberated with the town on July 22, 1944.> (col. 372)

[Chelm: Jews in the Red Army]

<Most Jews who left for the Soviet Union in 1939 joined the Soviet or Polish armies.> (col. 372)

[There is no death rate indicated].

[Jews coming back and emigrating for DP camps and emigration to Israel and USA is not mentioned].

[1945-1950s: Chelm: Jewish families in Chelm]

<Until the 1950s, several Jewish families lived in postwar Chelm. Organizations of Jews from Chelm are active in Israel, South Africa, the United States, France, Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Brazil.>

[So it seems there have been a lot of Jews coming back from U.S.S.R. who were emigrating then to overseas].

-----

Chryzanow (Poland)

from: Chryzanow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

<The community numbered 5,504 in 1900 (54% of the total population) and 6,328 in 1921 (45%), and some 8,000 in 1939.> (col. 534)

[1939: Chryzanow: Flight to Soviet sector]

<Holocaust Period.

<The German Army entered on Sept. 4, 1939, and initiated the anti-Jewish terror. In the first months of German occupation, about 300 Jews succeeded in leaving for Soviet-held territory.> (col. 534)

[1945: Chryzanow: Some Jews survive]

<[...] deportation to *Auschwitz [...] Only a handful of Chryzanow's Jewish inhabitants survived the war, but the Jewish community in Chryzanow was not rebuilt.> (col. 535)

-----

Chortkov (Poland)

from: Chortkov; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

<The community numbered 3,146 in 1900 and 3,314 in 1921 (out of a total population of 5,191).> (col. 497)

[1939: Chortkov: Sovietization - Jewish refugees from Western Poland]

<Holocaust Period.

At the outbreak of World War II there were approximately 8,000 Jews in Chortkov. The Soviet period (September 1939-June 1941) brought far-reaching changes in the structure of the Jewish community, its economy, and educational system. Factories and businesses were nationalized, and many members of the Jewish intelligentsia sought employment in government service.

Many refugees from western Poland found assistance and relief through the synagogue, which had become the center for community activity - in part underground.

[1941: Chortkov: The Big Flight from Barbarossa]

When the Germans attacked the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941), hundreds of young Jews fled, some joining the Soviet army and some escaping into the interior.

[Red Army death rate is not mentioned].

[Chortkov: NS occupation and extermination of the remaining Jews]

The town was occupied by the Germans on July 6, 1941 and four days later some 200 Jews were killed in the first pogrom [...] pogroms [...] Judenrat [...] In October 1941 several hundred Hungarian Jews were brought to the vicinity of Chortkov, and most of them were murdered en route to Jagielnica. At the same time about 200 Jews in the professions were killed. In the winter of 1941-42, hundreds of Jews were kidnapped for slave labor camps in Skalat and Kamionka. A mass Aktion took place on August 28, 1942, when 2,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to * Belzec death camp. [...] July 1943. A month later the last remaining Jews in Chortkov were killed and the city was declared "judenrein". When the Soviet army occupied the area (March 1944), only about 100 Jews were found alive in Chortkov and a few in a nearby labor camp.> (col. 497)

[1945: Chortkov: No Jews coming back]

<Several resistance groups were active in the ghetto, in the labor camps, and among the partisans who operated in the Chortkov forests. Their leaders were Ryuwen Rosenberg, Meir Waserman, and the two brothers Heniek and Mundek Nusbaum. After the war no Jews settled in Chortkov. Societies of Chortkov Jews exist in Israel and in New York.> (col. 497)

-----

Cracow (Poland)

from: Cracow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

[Cracow: NS occupation]

[Flight to Soviet sector is not mentioned]

<Holocaust Period.

There were 60,000 Jews living in Cracow on the eve of World War II. Persecution began soon after the German occupation (Sept. 6, 1939). [...] Aktion [...] Judenrat [...] In April 1940, the German authorities [with it's collaborators] issued an order for most of the Jews to evacuate the city within four months. Some 35,000 left, while about 15,000 Jews received special permission to remain. Another group was forced to leave in February 1941 [...] ghetto [...] deported to the *Belzec death camp in three successive "selections" [...] Aktion [...] work camp [...] final liquidation [...] (col. 1038)

transferred to the nearby *Plaszow labor camp, anyone found hiding was shot. The majority of the Jews in the other section were either killed on the spot or dispatched to *Auschwitz.> (col. 1039)

[1945-1946: Cracow: Jews are coming back]

<Contemporary Period. By the end of World War II, only a few Jews who had been in hiding were saved. Only by the end of 1945 and in 1946 did Jews return to Cracow from Russia, where they had found refuge during the war years. The Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, however, was not reestablished by the Jews after the war because 3,000 among (col. 1039)

them sought residence elsewhere in the town, fearing the outbreak of a pogrom. The last Jew left Kazimierz in 1968. The new Jewish community used four of the ancient synagogues for their religious services. The oldest synagogue, "Hoyche Schul", was transformed into a Jewish museum. The old cemetery was renewed and reformed as a result of contributions from American and Canadian Jews. After the exodus of 1967-69, 700 Jews, mainly elderly ones, remained in the city. A memorial book on Cracow Jewry, Sefer Kraka Ir va-Em be-Yisrael, was published in 1959.> (col. 1040)

-----

Czestochowa (Poland)

from: Czestochowa; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 5

<By 1900 it [Jewish population] numbered 11,764 out of a total population of 39,863 (29.5%), in 1921, 22,663 and in 1939, 28,486.> (col. 1212)

[1939-1944: Czestochowa: NS occupation]

<Holocaust Period.

The German army entered the city on Sept. 3, 1939.

[Flight is not mentioned].

[...] pogrom [...] Judenrat [...] When a greater number of Jews from other parts of western Poland came to Czestochowa in 1940-41, the city's Jewish population grew by several thousands. On April 9, 1941, a ghetto was established. When it was sealed off (Aug. 23) the population suffered severe overcrowding, hunger and epidemics. On Sept. 23, 1942 (the day after the Day of Atonement), a large-scale Aktion began. By October 5, about 39,000 people had been deported to *Treblinka and exterminated, while about 2,000 were executed on the spot [...] (col. 1212)

[Czestochowa: Big part of Jewish Partisan units killed by Polish army]

<The Jewish Fighting Organization tried to organize guerrilla units in the nearby forests. Two large groups were dispatched to the forests of Zloy Potok and Koniecpol, but before they could begin partisan activities, they were murdered by Polish terrorists of the Naitonal Armed Forces (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne). A few smaller groups succeeded in contacting the Polish left-wing People's Guard and they conducted guerrilla activities in its ranks.> (col. 1214)

[Czestochowa: HASAG concentration camp: 5,200 survivors by hiding]

<On June 26, 1943, the Germans [and it's collaborators] began liquidating the "small ghetto". The Jewish Fighting Organization offered armed resistance, but they could not cope with the situation. About 1,000 people were deported and the ghetto was closed down. the remaining 4,000 Jews were transferred to two slave labor camps organized at the city's HASAG factories. On July 20, 1943, about 500 prisoners from these camps were executed at the Jewish cemetery.

In 1944 the HASAG slave labor camps were enlarged, when a few thousand Jewish prisoners from *Plaszow concentration camp, Lodz Ghetto, and the slave labor camp of Skarzysko-Kamienna were moved there. Before leaving the city on Jan. 17, 1945, the Germans managed to deport almost 6,000 prisoners from the HASAG camps to the concentration camps of *Buchenwald, Gross-Rosen and *Ravensbrueck in Germany. The 5,200 prisoners who succeeded in hiding were saved by the Soviet army. The Jewish survivors tried to rebuild their community.> (col. 1214)

[But the number of survivors is declining again. Draft of the male survivors into the Red Army is not mentioned, and the death rate in the Red Army neither].

[since 1944: Czestochowa: Exodus step by step]

<In June 1946, 2,167 Jews lived in Czestochowa. Some kibbutzim to prepare Jewish youth for settlement in Palestine were active until 1948, a Jewish school existed till March 1946, and a Jewish Religious Society was active. After 1948 only the official communist Jewish Social-Cultural Society continued to function until the anti-Semitic campaign in 1968. Jews left Czestochowa and settled mainly in Israel in 1949 and 1957. After 1968 almost all those who remained left Poland. Organizations of Czestochowa Jews are active in Israel, the United States, Canada, Argentina, and France.> (col. 1214)

-----

Disna (Pol. Dzisna) Poland

from: Disna; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 6

[1939-1941: Disna: Sovietization]

<Holocaust Period.

Between the outbreak of World War II and the German-Soviet war, Disna was under Soviet occupation. When the German army entered on July 3, 1941, there were 6,000 Jewish inhabitants in the city.

[Stalin deportations are not mentioned, withdrawal of the Red Army is not mentioned, Flight from Barbarossa is not mentioned].

[1941-1944: Disna: NS occupation]

Soon after the arrival of the Germans, the synagogues were burned down. At the end of the year a ghetto was set up. The main Aktion was carried out on June 14-15, 1942, when the entire ghetto was destroyed. The inhabitants were all taken to Piaskowe Gorki where they were murdered.

[Disna: Flight to the forests - Jewish partisan units]

During the Aktion about 2,000 persons broke out of the ghetto and sought refuge in the forests. The Germans [and the collaborators] hunted down the escapees, but some succeeded in organizing partisan units, while other Disna Jews joined the Fourth Belorussian Partisan Brigade. On Jan. 22, 1943, 17 Jewish craftsmen, the sole survivors of the Aktion of June 1942 to remain in Disna, were murdered.> (col. 75)

[Death rate is not mentioned, Jews coming back are not mentioned]

-----

Gostynin (Poland)

from: Gostynin; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 7

<There were 2,269 Jews living in Gostynin on the eve of World War II.

[1939-1944: Gostynin: NS occupation]

[Flight movement is not mentioned].

Holocaust Period.

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.

[...] ghetto [...] 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.> (col. 818)

[1945: Gostynin: Destruction of Jewish cemetery - emigration]

<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 zaddik destroyed. The few Jews from Gostynin who survived the Holocaust subsequently emigrated.> (col. 818)

-----

Gniezno (Ger. Gnesen) (Poland)

from: Gniezno; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 7

[1939: Gniezno: Flight from Barbarossa - 1939-1945: NS occupation - 1945: No Jews returning]

<Holocaust Period.

Before World War II nearly 150 Jews lived in Gniezno. During the Nazi occupation, the town belonged to Warthegau. During the first four months of the occupation, the town was emptied of all its Jewish inhabitants. A certain number escaped before and after the Germans entered, but the majority were deported on orders given on Nov. 12, 1939, by Wilhelm Koppe, the Higher S.S. and Police Leader of Warthegau. The orders called for the deportation of the entire Jewish population of Gniezno by the end of February 1940 to the territory of the Generalgouvernement. On Dec. 13, 1939, 65 Jews from Gniezno, probably the last of the community, arrived in Piotrkow Trybunalski in the Radom district. After the removal of the Jews from Gniezno, the Germans razed the old Jewish cemetery and transformed it into a warehouse. No Jews resettled in the town after World War II.> (col. 637)

-----

Gabin (Poland)

from: Gabin; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 7

[Gabin 1939-1944: NS occupation - 1944: survivors on NS side and almost 10 % survivors on the Soviet side]

[The Big Flight from Barbarossa is not mentioned].

<Holocaust Period.

At the outbreak of the war, there were 2,312 Jews living in Gabin. [...] ghetto [...] transports of Jews to labor camps - the majority of them to Konin [...] In 1942, 2,150 Jews lived in Gabin, and despite transports to labor camps the Jewish population grew, because of an influx of Jews from the region. But on May 12, 1942, all Jews in Gabin were dispatched to the death camp in *Chelmno. Only 212 Jews from Gabin survived - 32 on the "Aryan side" and in concentration camps, and about 180 in the U.S.S.R. Nearly all of them subsequently left Poland.> (col. 235)

[So there must have been a big Flight from Barbarossa, because the death rate in the Red Army can be admitted to be very high].

-----

Hrubieszow (Poland)

from: Hrubieszow; in: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 8

<The Jewish population numbered 709 in 1765, 3,276 in 1856, 5,352 (out of 10,636) in 1897, 5,679 (out of 9,568) in 1921, and 7,500 in 1939.> (col. 1054)

[1939: Hrubieszow: Withdrawal of Red Army and Big Flight of Barbarossa]

<Holocaust Period.

The German army entered on Sept. 15, 1939, and immediately organized a series of pogroms. Ten days later the Germans withdrew and the Soviet army occupied the town, but after a fortnight returned it to the Germans, according to a new Soviet-German agreement. Over 2,000 Jews, having experienced the Nazi terror, left together with the withdrawing Soviet army.> (col. 1054)

[1939-1944: Hrubieszow: NS occupation: Deportations and resistance groups]

<The town's Jewish population diminished (April 1940) to 4,800. However, no ghetto was established here and only small deportations to Hrubieszow were carried out during 1940-41. [...] concentrate in one of two places [...] (col. 1054)

death march to Hrubieszow. Those who could not continue on the way were shot by the S.S. guards [...] deported [...] to Sobibor death camp and exterminated [...]. The last 200 Jews were after some time deported to a forced labor camp in Budzyn, where almost all of them perished due to the subhuman conditions. [...]

Hundreds of Jews succeeded in fleeing from Hrubieszow during the deportations, and found refuge in the forests. Many of them joined resistance groups, sometimes in faraway places, e.g., Solomon Brand who became one of the leading organizers of the Jewish resistance in Vilna, and Arieh Perec (known as Leon Porecki) who became a captain in the Polish underground Home Army during the Warsaw uprising. The Jewish community in Hrubieszow was not reconstituted after the war.> (col. 1055)

[Jews coming back are not mentioned].

-----

Inowroclaw (Hohensalza) (Poland)

from: Inowroclaw; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 8

<in central Poland (col. 1379)

With the incorporation of the area in Poland after World War I conditions deteriorated again and by 1939 the community was reduced to 172.> (col. 1380)

[Inowroclaw 1939 - NS occupation - "judenrein" 1939]

<Holocaust Period.

During World War II Inowroclaw served under the name Hohensalza as the capital of one of the three Regierungsbezirk (districts) in Warthegau. (Before the outbreak of the war, Inowroclaw had 172 Jews. Many of them fled before and just after the Nazi forces entered).

Wilhelm Koppe, the Hoehere SS- und Polizeifuehrer of Warthegau, on Nov. 12, 1939, ordered that the town be made judenrein by the end of February 1940. On Nov. 14, 1939, a transport of Jews, probably including all the remaining Jewish population of Inowroclaw, was taken to *Gniezno and Kruszwica. By the end of 1939 the Jewish community in Inowroclaw had ceased to exist. The community was not reconstituted after World War II.> (col. 1380)

[Death rate of the Red Army is not mentioned].

-----

Opatow (Yid. Apta, Poland)

from: Opatow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 12

[1939: Opatow: Flight to the Soviet sector]

<Holocaust Period.

Before World War II 5,200 Jews lived in Opatow. The town came under the Radom District of the General-Government during the Nazi occupation. Many Jews fled before the Germans entered, young Jewish men in particular escaping to Soviet-occupied territory.> (col. 1410)

[1939-1944: Opatow: NS occupation]

<[...] ghetto [...] food, however, was available illegally in the open ghetto for high prices [...] (col. 1410)

meager, official food rations. Among the poor an epidemic of typhus broke out and a hospital was set up in the synagogue, which also served the surrounding Jewish towns. Jews engaged in hard labor in the vicinity of Opatow, on road construction and in quarries. The number of Jews in Opatow grew continually because of the influx of refugees from surrounding townlets and villages, as well as from distant towns - *Konin, *Lodz, and *Warsaw. In September 1940 there were 5,800 Jews, 600 of them newcomers; by September 1942 there were about 7,000 Jews, 1,800 of them deportees. Shortly before the liquidation a number of Jews from Silesia settled in Opatow Ghetto, which from June 1, 1942, was one of the 17 ghettos officially left in the country. [...] sent to the labor camps.> (col. 1411)

<The liquidation of the ghetto took place on Oct. 20-22, 1942. German police and Ukrainians surrounded the ghetto and carried out a mass Selektion in the square. 6,000 Jews were driven on foot to the Jasice station near Ostrow, loaded onto wagons, and taken to *Treblinka. Another 500 to 600 Jews were taken to a labor camp in Sandomierz. During the three-day Aktion several hundred Jews were killed in the town. The Germans left a few score Jews in Opatow to clear the terrain and sort out Jewish property. After the work was completed the Jews were shot at the Jewish cemetery, with the exception of a few individuals, among them the president of the Judenrat, who reached labor camps in Sandomierz. The community was not reconstituted after the war.> (col. 1411)

[Death rate in the Red Army and returning Jews are not mentioned].

-----

Ostrow Mazowiecka (Poland)

from: Ostrow Mazowiecka; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 12

[Ostrow 1939: Flight to the Soviet side - NS occupation - returning Jews 1944-1946]

<Holocaust Period. In 1939 over 7,000 Jews lived in Ostrow Mazowiecka. The German army entered on Sept. 8, 1939, and two days later initiated a pogrom, killing 30 Jews. At the end of September 1939 the German army withdrew for a few days and the Soviet army reached the town's suburbs since, according to the Soviet-German agreement. Ostrow Mazowiecka became a frontier town on the German side. Almost all the Jews crossed over to the Soviet side.

On Nov. 11, 1939, the Germans [and the collaborators] assembled the remaining 560 Jews, drove them to a forest outside the town, and murdered them. Most from the Jewish refugees from the town settled [1944-1946] in Bialystok but many did not succeed.> (col. 1518)

[Anti-Semitism after 1944 and emigration are not mentioned].

-----

Warsaw (Poland)

from: Warsaw; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971; Vol. 16

[Warsaw 1939: Flight to the Soviet side - returning Jews 1945]

<By the end of 1945 about 5,000 Jews had settled in Warsaw. That number was more than doubled, when Polish Jews, who had survived the war in the Soviet Union, returned. Warsaw became the seat of the Central Committee of Polish Jews.> (col. 353)

-----

Wyszkow (Poland)

from: Wyszkow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971; Vol. 16

[Wyszkow 1939-1944: NS occupation: Most of the Jews are driven into the Soviet zone - partisans]

<Holocaust Period.

On the outbreak of World War II there were about 5,000 Jews in the town. The German army entered Wyszkow on Sept. 11, 1939, and organized anti-Jewish riots in which 65 Jews were shot. A few days later, the entire Jewish population was expelled and forced to move eastward into Soviet-occupied territory.

After the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the survivors of the Jewish Fighters' Organization formed a partisan unit named after Mordecai Anielewicz that operated in the forests near Wyszkow. After the war, no Jewish community was reconstituted in Wyszkow.> (col. 680)

-----

Zabolotov (Poland)

from: Zabolotov; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 16

<In 1921 there were only 1,454 Jews (41%) left. Between the world wars the town was under Polish administration.> (col. 902)

[1939-1941: Zabolotov: Sovietization]

<Holocaust Period.

Under Soviet rule (1939-41) the town's Jewish institutions were disbanded.> (col. 902)

[Stalin deportations are not mentioned, and the withdrawal of the Red Army and the Big Flight from Barbarossa are not mentioned, either].

[1941-1944: Zabolotov: NS occupation - no Jewish community since 1945]

Early in July 1941 Hungarian forces took Zabolotov. The Ukrainians organized pogroms against the Jewish inhabitants. The town passed to direct German rule in September 1941 [...] Aktion [...] ghetto [...]. On April 24 1942 orders were given for a general evacuation of the remaining Jews to the ghetto in *Kolomyya [...] (col. 902)

On Sept. 7, 1942, the remainder of the Jewish community of Zabolotov, along with all the Jews in that district, was sent to Snyatyn. They were all deported to the *Belzec extermination camp. The Zabolotov Jews in Kolomyya were liquidated along with the other inmates of the Kolomyya ghetto in an Aktion in January 1943. (col. 903)

[Jews coming back and emigrating for DP camps and emigration to Israel and USA is not mentioned].

<Societies of former residents of Zabolotov function in Israel and the U.S.> (col. 903)

-----

Zambrow (Poland)

from: Zambrow; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 16

[1939-1941: Zambrow: Sovietization - Jewish refugees from Ostrow Mazowieck - Stalin deportations]

<Holocaust Period.

Under Soviet administration (1939-41) great changes were introduced affecting Jewish life. All activities of a political or Zionist nature were suppressed, and private enterprise was terminated. Jewish refugees arrived from Ostrow Mazowieck and were offered assistance by the Jewish community. A great number of these refugees were exiled to the Soviet interior.> (col. 923)

[1941: Zambrow: Draft into the Red Army]

<In the spring of 1941 the (col. 923)

young Jews were drafted into the Soviet army.

[The withdrawal and the Big Flight from Barbarossa are not mentioned].

[1941-1944: Zambrow: NS occupation - ghetto and forest problems - anti-Semitic partisans killing Jews]

After the war between Germany [and the collaborators] and the U.S.S.R. broke out (June 22, 1941), the town fell to the Germans [and it's collaborators]. [...] Aktion [...] At the end of December 1941 about 2,000 Jews were forced into a ghetto and subjected to starvation. Typhus epidemics broke out, and the hospital set up to aid the population worked ceaselessly.

People began fleeing to the forests in an attempt to join the partisans. The severe conditions of the forest, as well as the anti-Semitic attitude of the partisans, forced many Jews to return to the ghetto. Nevertheless some Jews were able to join partisan units which operated in the area of the Pniewa forest. Many of the were killed by members of the Polish underground Armia Krajowa.> (col. 924)

<In November 1942 about 20,000 Jews from Zambrow and the vicinity were rounded up and interned in a former army camp. On Jan. 12, 1943, their transport to Auschwitz began in batches of 2,000 a night. Two hundred elderly and sick were poisoned and disposed of locally.> (col. 924)

[1945: Zambrow: Jews coming back from U.S.S.R. - emigration to overseas]

<After the war, only a few survivors from Zambrow and the vicinity remained. Others returned from the Soviet Union. Most of the survivors left again for Bialystok and Lodz, and later left Poland. Societies of emigrants from Zambrow were established in the U.S., Argentina, and Israel. A memorial book, Sefer Zambrov, in Hebrew and Yiddish with English summary, was published in 1963.> (col. 924)

-----

Zamosc (Poland)

from: Zamosc; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1941, Vol. 16

<After the war the community was reorganized. It numbered 9,383 in 1921, 10,265 in 1931, and 12,000 in 1939.> (col. 927)

[1939: NS occupation - Soviet occupation - Big Flight from Barbarossa 1941]

<Holocaust Period.

After a few days of heavy bombardment, which especially damaged the Jewish quarter, the German army entered Zamosc on Sept. 14, 1939. Immediately after capturing the city, the Germans organized a series of pogroms, motivated in part by the desire to loot Jewish property.

On Sept. 26, 1939, the Germans left ZIamosc and the Soviet army entered, but handed the city back to the Germans two weeks later, in accordance with the new Soviet-German demarcation line. About 5,000 Jews left the city at the time that the Soviet army withdrew [in 1941].> (col. 927)

[1941-1944: NS occupation - flight into the forests]

The remaining Jewish population suffered Nazi brutality and (col. 927)

persecutions, like the rest of the Jews throughout Lublin province. [...] ghetto deportation [...] to Belzec death camp [...] From May 1 to 3 1942, about 2,100 Jews from *Dortmund, Germany, and from Czechoslovakia were taken to Zamosc. Almost all of them were deported to Belzec on May 27 and murdered. the third mass deportation started on Oct. 16, 1942. All Jews were again ordered to gather in the city's market, and afterward were driven to *Izbica, some 15 1/2 mi. (25 km) from Zamosc. Many were shot on the way, and the rest after a short stay in Izbica, were deported to Belzec and murdered.> (col. 928)

<[...] A few hundred Jews fled to the forests. Most of them crossed the Bug River, made contacts with Soviet guerrillas in the Polesie forest, and joined various local partisan groups.> (col. 928)

[1945: Jews coming back - emigration]

<After the war some 300 Jews settled in Zamosc (270 from the Soviet Union, and 30 survivors of the Holocaust in Zamosc), but after a short stay they all left Poland.> (col. 928)

Teilen / share:

Facebook

Twitter

^