Tarnów Ghetto

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Tarnów Ghetto
Abuse of residents in the Tarnów ghetto

The Tarnów Ghetto in the Warsaw District of the General Government was established in June 1942 as a closed district with around 16,000 Jews. At the end of November 1942, it was divided into two areas, one of which was run as the Tarnów forced labor camp , while the other part with non-working Jews and children remained under the security police. In September 1943, the ghetto began to be dissolved and was finally liquidated in February 1944.

Before the establishment of the ghetto

When the German Wehrmacht occupied the city of Tarnów on September 8, 1939 , many of the 25,000 Jewish residents fled eastwards, while refugees displaced and fled from the west also came. For the year 1942, more recent research suggests that there were 30,000 Jews in Tarnów.

From the beginning of the occupation, many Jews were used for forced labor, for which a Judenrat was set up in September 1939 . In the spring of 1940 Jews had to hand over their valuables and pay a fine; They also had to vacate their apartments in certain streets and move to the designated ghetto area. The Gestapo was looking for refugees who were unannounced in the city; in December 1941 several of them were shot.

On June 11, 1942, the security police began an action that was continued on June 15, in which up to 4,000 Jews were shot on the streets and in the Jewish cemetery or in the nearby Zbylitowska Gora forest and 8,000 more victims were deported to the Belzec extermination camp .

Tarnów Ghetto

On June 19, 1942, the German civil administration ordered the formation of a closed ghetto. The concentration of the Jewish population was intended to facilitate their subsequent deportation . At the beginning of July 1942 there were 15,828 people in the ghetto, the gates of which were guarded by the Jewish security service .

Children's action

In a first action on September 10, 1942, all ghetto residents had to come to the market square. Anyone who could not produce a certificate of fitness for work was detained in horse stables and deported to the Belzec extermination camp two days later. This affected around 7,000 people, including many children - which is why the Jewish population also referred to this as a children's campaign .

Division of the camp

Around 9,000 people remained in the ghetto, to which more Jews from the surrounding area were deported, so that the total number increased slightly by October 1942. On November 15, 1942, 2,500 ghetto inmates were selected and - partly via Reichshof - transported to Belzec and murdered there.

Thereafter, the ghetto was divided into two areas, separated by double board walls: A camp A with working men, women and young people from the age of twelve and a B camp with children and non-working people. The security police at the Tarnów branch continued to be responsible for the second part. At the end of November 1942, the first part was converted into the Tarnów forced labor camp , which was subordinate to the SS and police leader Hermann Blache . The majority of the workforce was employed outside the camp in companies in the textile industry or as a saddler, shoemaker or carpenter.

Dissolution of the ghetto

As early as mid-May 1943, it was decided to liquidate the ghetto. The SS Police Leader Julian Scherner commissioned Amon Göth with the liquidation of the ghetto, which began on September 2, 1943 with a selection in the forced labor camp. It is estimated that a total of 7,000 to 8,000 ghetto residents were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau ; 2000 to 3000 Jews fit for work were transferred to the Plaszow concentration camp , 700 people were deported to the Szebnie labor camp and 300 Jews were held back for cleanup work. At the beginning of February 1944 the ghetto was finally dissolved; the mass graves in the area were cleared as part of Aktion 1005 .

Criminal penalties

After the war, six perpetrators were finally convicted by Polish courts and four by German courts. Not a single member of the civil administration was among them; they were all members of the SS and police apparatus.

literature

  • Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Kraków district - Jewish life and German occupation in Tarnów 1939-1945 . Scientific book club, Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Israel Gutman et al. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust . Munich and Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 , Vol. 3, p. 1396.
  2. ↑ Figures of 40,000 are considered outdated: Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakow district - Jewish life and German occupation in Tarnów 1939-1945 . Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , p. 189 with note 147.
  3. ^ Israel Gutman et al. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust . Munich and Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 , Vol. 3, p. 1396.
  4. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , p. 197.
  5. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , pp. 197-198.
  6. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , pp. 200–203.
  7. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , p. 203.
  8. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , pp. 204–206.
  9. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , pp. 261-275.
  10. ↑ Melanie Hembera: The Shoah in the Krakau district ... Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-26786-6 , pp. 289-307.

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 48.6 ″  N , 20 ° 59 ′ 27.2 ″  E