| The Sosnowiec Ghetto | |
|---|---|
 Deportation of Jews from the Sosnowiec Ghetto | |
  Sosnowiec Sosnowiec location north ofAuschwitz duringthe Holocaust in Poland | |
  Sosnowiec Ghetto Location of Sosnowiec in Poland today | |
| Location | Sosnowiec,German-occupied Poland 50°17′50″N19°09′25″E / 50.29722°N 19.15694°E /50.29722; 19.15694[1] |
| Incident type | Imprisonment, forced labor, starvation,transit to extermination camps |
| Organizations | Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Camp | Auschwitz |
| Victims | 35,000Polish Jews |
TheSosnowiec Ghetto (German:Ghetto von Sosnowitz) was aWorld War II ghetto set up byNazi German authorities forPolish Jews in the Środula district ofSosnowiec in theProvince of Upper Silesia. Duringthe Holocaust in occupied Poland, most inmates, estimated at over 35,000 Jewish men, women and children were deported toAuschwitz death camp aboardHolocaust trains followingroundups lasting from June until August 1943.[2] The ghetto was liquidated during an uprising, a final act of defiance of its UndergroundJewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) made up of youth. Most of the Jewish fighters perished.
The Sosnowiec Ghetto formed a single administrative unit with theBędzin Ghetto,[3] because both cities are a part ofthe same metropolitan area in theDąbrowa Basin. Prior to deportations, the Jews from the two ghettos shared the "Farma" vegetable garden allocated to Zionist youth by the Judenrat.[4]
Before the war, there were about 30,000 Jews inSosnowiec, making up about 20% of the town's population.[5] Over the next two years the Germans resettled thousands of Jews from smaller towns to Sosnowiec, temporarily increasing the size of the local Jewish community to 45,000.[5] By late 1942, Będzin and nearbySosnowiec (which bordered Będzin), became the only two cities in the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie region that were still inhabited by Jews.[6]
The city, located on the pre-war Polish-German border, was taken over by the Germans on the first day of theinvasion of Poland.[7] Arrests and beatings among more prominent Jews began the next morning. On 9 September 1939 the Great Synagogue in Sosnowiec was burned.[8] Local Jews were being evicted from better homes and terrorized on the streets. Jewish businesses were plundered by individual soldiers and closed by the Nazis pending confiscation proceedings. Shootings and first mass executions followed soon afterwards. Forced relocations into crowded tenements slowly created a ghetto.[6][7][9]
Judenrat and theJewish Ghetto Police were soon established on German orders; the head of the Sosnowiec Judenrat wasMoshe Merin (Mojżesz Merin in Polish).[10] Food rationing was introduced. The Jews were prohibited from buying anything outside their own community. In the first months of 1940 theZentrale der Jüdischen Ältestenräte in Oberschlesien (Central Office of the Jewish Councils of Elders in Upper Silesia), headed by Merin, was created in Sosnowiec, representing about 45 communities. For a time, Merin became infamous as the dictator of the Jews of theZaglebie region, with the power of life and death over local Jews.[11] A labour camp was established for the Jews deported to Sosnowiec from Czechoslovakia to work at the factory of the Shine brothers. Numerousforced labour facilities were established for the locals; making uniforms, underwear, corsets, bags, leather handbags, and military boots.[6][12] In 1940 some 2,592 German war profiteers arrived in the city. By 1942, their number rose to 10,749 settlers, constituting 10% of the general population.[13]
Ever since the ghetto was established, numerous deportation actions were organized by the Germans with the help of the Judenrat andMerin, selecting healthy men forslave labor at the camps.[14] Large transfers of Jews took part in May (1,500) and June 1942 (2,000).[15] Around October 1942 - January 1943 the ghetto was moved to theŚrodula district.[6][16] Środula also bordered the site of theBędzin Ghetto. At this point about 13,000 Jews still lived in Sosnowiec. The creation of the Sosnowiec ghetto ended on 10 March 1943, when it was finally closed off from the outside world.
Thousands of Jews were deported from Sosnowiec to Auschwitz in June 1943 during the major deportation action extending to nearby Będzin.[17] The ghetto was liquidated two months later in August, whereas almost all remaining Jews were also deported to Auschwitz.[18] A few hundred Jews remained in the Środula ghetto, which was liquidated in January 1944.[18]
There had been considerable underground activity among the Jews in Sosnowiec andBędzin Ghetto nearby, organized by the youth organizationsHa-No'ar ha-Ziyyoni, Gordonia, andHa-Shomer ha-Za'ir. During the final major deportation push in August 1943, theJewish Combat Organization (Polish:Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB) in Będzin and Sosnowiec stagedan uprising against the Germans.[6][19] The uprising, which began on 3 August 1943, was led by Cwi (Tzvi) Brandes,Frumka Płotnicka, and the Kożuch brothers. It was the final act of defiance of the local population with no chance of success. Most of the young Jewish fighters perished (400killed in action),[13] fighting the overwhelming German forces.[20] The last Holocaust transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau with Jews forced to bury the dead, left Sosnowiec on 15 January 1944.[13]
Resistance of the ghetto inhabitants is commemorated by one of the streets in Sosnowiec, bearing the name "Street of the Ghetto Heroes" (Ul. Bohaterów Getta). There is also Kożuch Brothers square (Plac Braci Kożuchów) with a ghetto memorial.[citation needed]
TheCatholic convent ofCarmeliteNuns led by MotherTeresa Kierocińska aided the Jews in the ghetto and hiding. Kierocińska was awarded a medal ofthe Righteous 46 years after her death. She was declared"heroic in virtue" byPope Francis in 2013. The Carmelite Sisters run an orphanage at the monastery. They delivered free bread to Jews in hiding, send food parcels to Auschwitz, and rescued Jewish children by hiding them under false names among the Christian orphans. The convent was frequently inspected by the Gestapo on suspicion of illegal activities.[21]
During the ghetto liquidation, Danuta Szwarcbaum-Bachmajer escaped with her new baby and was rescued by the Chawiński couple.[22] Szloma Szpringer (Springer) with his 5-year-old son Wolf was rescued byPelagia Huczak, another recipient of the Righteous Among the Nations award.[23][24] Adela Zawadzka with her 3-year-old child and her sister Rozia Zawadzka escaped from the 1943 deportation and were rescued by Józefa Hankus and her sister Rozalia Porębska who got them false papers from thePolish underground; Rozia used her falseKennkarte to get her fiancé Elek Jakubowicz out of the camp, helped by Johan Brys, a railway man. Rozalia Porębska sheltered them both, and helped many other Jews from Sosnowiec as well. Porębska family and friend, a total of seven individuals, received the Righteous award in 1982.[25] Mosze Kokotek whose wife Brandla was killed by the Germans, escaped from the ghetto with his 9-year-old daughter Felicja and stayed with the Poles on the Aryan side until 1944. They left the city together after Sosnowiec becameJudenfrei. Little Felicja was taken in by Leokadia Statnik (Pessel) inOchojec nearKatowice. Mosze left them there and perished, but his daughter grew up in the care of Leokadia, and in 1957 immigrated to Israel.[26] Another child, Zofia Goldman, rescued by Maria Suszczewicz, was claimed back by her father Henryk who survived, and went with him to Australia.[27]
Six Jews were sheltered for two years from 1943 until the arrival of the Soviets in 1945 by Maria Sitko and her daughter Wanda Sitko-Gelbhart, including Fela Kac and her aunt Fryda, Heniek Mandelbaum, Jerzy Feder, as well as Felicja and Leon Weintraub. They shared a tiny apartment consisting of one room with a kitchen and a vestibule with the door into the corridor. Fryda with Fela escaped from the Holocaust train. During police searches, the Jews used to descend into two dugouts constructed by the men under the floors, so the Sitko women could pretend that they did not harbor fugitives, which carried the death penalty in those days. Wanda Sitko stole an identity card while visiting the police station, and gave it to Jerzy Feder which allowed him to go outside with her to obtain the necessities of life on the Aryan side of the city. All Jews survived the Holocaust. Thirty years later in 1986 – after her mother's death – Wanda Sitko-Gelbhart received a letter from the survivors which stated: "You and your mother at the risk of your life did things impossible and great, all this disinterestedly, acting only from the heart, which at that time was truly heroic.[28]
The "Farma" was a plot of land between Bedzin and Sosnowiec that was allocated to the local Zionist youth movements by the Jewish Council for the growing of vegetables.