Lubartów Ghetto

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Lubartów Ghetto is located in the town of Lubartów in Poland. Lubartów consists of a large Jewish community as has done since the 16th Century. Most of the Jews resided near the centre of the town. Here, they owned most of the businesses.

Alongside the shops that the Jews owned, there were also three Synagogues and two cemeteries (one of which had not been used since the 19th Century).

The German army entered the town early on in the war, in 19 September 1939. The first event of persecution of the Jews occurred on 12 October 1939. The German army ordered all of the Jews to go to the market square where they were surrounded by machine guns. This allowed for the German army to rob and destroy Jewish-owned businesses.

[edit] Deportation and Execution

The deportation of Jews to the nearby towns of Firlej, Ostrów Lubelski and Kamionka, started at the beginning of November 1939. All of the Jews were told to leave. There were, though, a few Jews who stayed to work for the German army. They were exiled from Lubartów until September 1940.

A Judenrat – German for "Jewish council" – was set up for those Jews who stayed. This was set up at the end of 1939. The first President, Jakub Modko Lichtenfel, did not stay president for long and was soon replaced by Dawid Perec. The last Judenrat of Lubartów consisted of five members:

Moshe Joel Edelman (President)
Shlomo Ber Ciesler (Vice President)
Izrael Ratensilber
Menashe Kosman
And Jechiel Weinberg.

The ghetto - the areas around the two market places of Lubartów - were still existent when the Jews returned from exile. A "people’s kitchen" was organised for the now poverty-stricken Jews.

Deportation also existed to Lubartów. An example of this is the movement of 1,000 Jews from Ciechanów.

The first deportation to death camps started in 9 April 1942 (the last day of Passover). On the first day, 800 Jews were selected – those who did not have work cards – were ordered to go to the railway station where they would eventually arrive at Belzec.

Slovakian Jews were also deported to Lubartów. By May 1942, 2,421 Slovakian Jews had been deported to Lubartów.

The last of the deportations from Lubartów, were held on the 11 October 1942. Some of these were sent to Majdanek, with the others going to the death camp in Treblinka. Jews that were found to be hiding were shot. Those who were found after the last deportation were also shot. In total, the number of Jews found after last deportation numbered 300. After a while, the Jews that were found were instead deported to the Piaski ghetto.

The members of the Judenrat, and their families, were deported to Łęczna. They were later shot in November 1942.

Jews who worked for the German gendarmerie were later shot on 29 January 1943.

After the last deportations Synagogues were destroyed. The cemeteries were also destroyed. The gravestones were used for a pavement of the base for Wehrmacht soldiers.

At the end of the war only 40 Jews had survived the mass murder. Five of which had stayed in the town of Lubartów.

[edit] External link

[edit] Source

Documents from State Archive in Lublin and Archive of the Majdanek State Museum. Churban Lewartow, ed by B. Czubinski. Paris 1947
J. Kielbon: Martyrologia ludno?ci Lubartowa w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (Martyrdom of the Inhabitants of *Lubartow in the Years of Nazi Occupation). Lubartow and Ziemia Lubartowska 1993
Z. J. Hirsz: Lata wojny i okupacji 1939 -1944 ( Years of the War and Occupation 1939-1944). (in:) Lubartow – z dziejow miasta i regionu (Lubartow – from the History of the Town and Region). Ed by S. Tworek. Lublin 1977
M. Derecki: Kromka chleba (Slice of Bread). "Gazeta w Lublinie” (23 April 1993)
R. Kuwalek, P. Sygowski: Z dziejow spolecznosci zydowskiej w Lubartowie. (From the History of the Jewish Community in Lubartow). Lubartow i Ziemia Lubartowska 2000

Gilbert, Martin: The Holocaust – The Jewish Tragedy, William Collins Sons & Co. Limited, London, 1986