| Sambor Ghetto | |
|---|---|
  Sambor Sambor location duringthe Holocaust in Eastern Europe | |
| Location | Sambir, WesternUkraine |
| Incident type | Imprisonment, slave labor, mass killings, deportations todeath camps, extortion |
| Organizations | SS;Schutzmannschaften |
| Camp | Belzec (see map) |
| Victims | Over 10,000 Jews[1] |
Sambor Ghetto (Polish:getto w Samborze,Ukrainian:Самбірське гето,Hebrew:גטו סמבור) was aNazi ghetto established in March 1942 by theSS inSambir, WesternUkraine. In the interwar period, the town (Sambor) had been part of theSecond Polish Republic. In 1941, the Germans captured the town at the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa. According to thePolish census of 1931, Jews constituted nearly 29 percent of the town's inhabitants,[2] most of whom were murdered duringthe Holocaust. Sambor (Sambir) is not to be confused with the much smaller Old Sambor (Stary Sambor, nowStaryi Sambir) located nearby, although the Jewish history of the two is inextricably linked.[3]
When theSecond Polish Republic was formed in 1918, both Sambor and Stary Sambor became seats of separategminas. In 1932, the counties were combined into a single administrative area.[4] The Jewish population grew steadily. Brand new schools, including a Jewish gymnasium and aBais Yaakov for girls were established, as well as new industrial plants, unions, Jewish relief organizations, and several Zionist parties such asWorld Agudath Israel. Jews engaged in trade, crafts, carter, agriculture, and professional activities. Jewish cultural institutions included a large library and a sports club.[5] On 8–11 September 1939, Sambor was overrun by the1st Mountain Division of the Wehrmacht during the PolishBattle of Lwów.[6] It was transferred to theSoviet Union in accordance with theGerman-Soviet Frontier Treaty signed on 28 September 1939.[6]
After the Soviet takeover, wealthy and middle-class Polish Jews were arrested by theNKVD and sentenced for deportation to Siberiaalong with the Polish intelligentsia. Some pro-Soviet Jews were given government jobs.[7] The economy was nationalized; hundreds of citizens were executed out of sight by the secret police as "enemies of the people".[7][8] Sambor became part of theDrohobych Oblast on 4 December 1939.[4]
On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa. During the hasty evacuation of the political prison in Sambor, theNKVD shot 600 prisoners;[9] 80 corpses were left unburied for lack of time.[8] Sambor was taken over by the Wehrmacht on 29 June.[10] The city became one of a dozen administrative units of theDistrict of Galicia, the fifth district of theGeneral Government, with the capital inLemberg.[11]
Arriving German troops were accompanied by Ukrainian task forces (pokhidny hrupy) indoctrinated at German training bases in the General Government.[12] TheOUN followers (Anwärters included) mobilized Ukrainian militants in some 30 locations at once,[13] including in Sambor, and in accordance with the Nazi theory ofJudeo-Bolshevism, launched retaliatory pogroms against thePolish Jews. Thedeadliest of them, overseen bySS-BrigadeführerOtto Rasch, took place inLwów beginning 30 June 1941.[14] On 1 July 1941, the Ukrainian nationalists killed approximately 50–100 Polish Jews in Sambor,[5][10][15] but similar pogroms affected other Polish provincial capitals as far asTarnopol,Stanisławów andŁuck.[16]
The German authorities forced all adult Jews to wear theyellow badge. In July 1941, aJudenrat was formed in Sambor on German orders, with Dr. Shimshon (Samson) Schneidscher as its chairman.[17] In the following months, Jews were deported to the open-type ghetto in Sambor from the entire county.[10] On 17 July,Heinrich Himmler decreed the formation of theSchutzmannschaften from among the local Ukrainians,[16] owing to good relations with the local UkrainianHilfsverwaltung.[18] By 7 August 1941, in most areas conquered by the Wehrmacht,[13] units of theUkrainian People's Militia had already participated in a series of so-called "self-purification" actions, followed closely by killings carried out byEinsatzgruppe C.[15] TheOUN-B militia spearheaded a day-long pogrom in Stary Sambor.[3] Thirty-two prominent Jews were dragged by the nationalists to the cemetery and bludgeoned. Surviving eyewitnesses, Mrs. Levitski and Mr. Eidman, reported cases of dismemberment and decapitation.[3] Afterwards, aJewish Ghetto Police was set up, headed by Hermann Stahl.[5] Jews were ordered to hand over their furs, radios, silver and gold.[17]
Among the people trapped in the Sambor Ghetto were thousands of refugees who arrived there in an attempt to escape the German occupation of western Poland, and possibly cross the border to Romania[5] and Hungary.[19] Confined to the Blich neighbourhood of Sambor – the ghetto was sealed off from the outside on 12 January 1942,.[17][20] Jews from different parts of the city, along with inhabitants of neighbouring communities,[10] including Stary Sambor, were transferred to the ghetto until March 1942. A curfew was imposed, subject to shoot-on-sight enforcement.[3][5]
In July 1942, the firstkilling centre ofOperation Reinhard built by the SS atBelzec (just over 100 kilometres away) began its second phase of extermination, with brand new gas chambers built of brick.[21] Sambor Jews were rounded up in stages. A terror operation was conducted in the ghetto on 2–4 August 1942 ahead of the first deportation.[20] The 'resettlement' rail transports to Belzec left Sambor on 4–6 August 1942 under heavy guard, with 6,000 men, women, and children crammed intoHolocaust trains without food or water.[1] About 600 Jews were sent to theJanowska concentration camp nearby.[10] The second set of trains with 3,000–4,000 Jews departed on 17–18 and 22 October 1942.[1][22] On 17 November 1942, the depopulated ghetto was filled with expellees fromTurka andIlnik. Some Jews escaped to the forest. The town of Turka was declaredJudenfrei on 1 December 1942.[23] Irrespective of deportations, mass shootings of Jews were also carried out.[7][24] In January 1943, the Germans andUkrainian Auxiliary Police rounded up 1,500 Jews deemed 'unworthy of life'. They were trucked to the woods near Radlowicz (Radłowicze, Radlovitze; now Ralivka) and shot one by one.[23] Among those still alive in the ghetto, death by starvation and typhus raged.[23]
After the long winter, new terror operations in the ghetto took place in March[23] or April 1943.[3] The Gestapo utilized Wehrmacht units transiting through Sambor to round up Jews. All houses, cellars and even chimneys were searched.[3] The 1,500 captives were split in groups of 100 each.[23] They were escorted to the cemetery,[25] where Jewish men were forced to dig mass graves.[26] The liquidation of the ghetto was approaching. In June, Dr. Zausner, deputy to theJudenrat chairman, gave a speech full of hope because the Gestapo officein Drohobicz agreed to save a group of labourers in exchange for a huge ransom. Nevertheless, on the night of 8 June 1943, the UkrainianHilfspolizei set the ghetto houses on fire. In the morning, all Jewish slave labourers were escorted to prison, loaded onto lorries and trucked to the killing fields at Radłowicze.[3] The ghetto was no more; the city was declared "Judenrein". The Soviet Red Army liberated Sambor a year later amid heavy fighting with the retreating Germans, around 7 August 1944.[3][27]
Some Jews had managed to dig a tunnel leading to a sewer out of the ghetto and escaped to the partisans in the forest.[23] A number of local gentiles aided some of the escapees. Those declaredRighteous Among the Nations who helped Sambor Ghetto's Jews included the Plewa family,[19][28][29]Celina Kędzierska,[30] the Bońkowski family[31] and the Oczyński family.[32]
In 1943, the Nazi police executed at least 27 people in Sambor for attempting to hide Jews.[33] Altogether, about 160 Jews survived, mostly by hiding with Poles and Ukrainians in the town or the surrounding countryside.[34]
After the war, several members of the town's German civilian administration and security apparatus received prison sentences; others did not.[34]
"During the Soviet era, the Jewish cemetery of Sambor lost its original function and was levelled. Plans were made to construct a sports field on the site."[25] Since 1991, Sambir (Самбір) has been part ofUkraine. In 2000, attempts to preserve the site of the mass shootings for a Holocaust memorial park were halted.[25] In 2019, a deal was reached with the local village to allow the memorial to be built.[35]
The city of Sambor: 21,923 inhabitants, with 13,575 ethnic Poles, and 6,274 Jews, as well as 1,338 ethnic Ukrainians and 1,564 ethnic Ruthenians (i.e. Rusyns) determined by mother tongue (Yiddish: 4,942 and Hebrew: 383). Sambor county (powiat): population 133,814 in 1931 (urban and rural) with 11,258 Jews.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)For the current population numbers within Ukraine see:"Population of Ukraine as of January 1, 2016"(PDF).Statistical Collected Book Available. State Statistics Service of Ukraine; Institute for Demography and Social Studies: 55, 52. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 22 July 2016. Retrieved6 September 2016.м. Самбір: 35,026 – м. Старий Самбір: 6,648.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)В двух тюрьмах в городе Самбор и Стрий (сведений о тюрьме в гор. Перемышль не имеем) – содержалось 2242 заключенных. Во время эвакуации расстреляно по обеим тюрьмам 1101 заключенных, освобождено – 250 человек, этапировано 637 и оставлено в тюрьмах – 304 заключенных. 27 июня при эвакуации в тюрьме гор. Самбор осталось – 80 незарытых трупов, на просьбы начальника тюрьмы к руководству Горотдела НКГБ и НКВД оказать ему помощь в зарытии трупов – они ответили категорическим отказом.
29 июня 1941 Самбор оккупировали части вермахта. 1 июля 1941 местные украинцы устроили погром, в ходе которого было убито 50 евреев.
Kreishauptmannschaften in Distrikt Galizien.
When the Soviets occupied eastern Galicia, some 30,000 Ukrainian nationalists fled to the General Government. In 1940 the Germans began to set up military training units of Ukrainians, and in the spring of 1941 Ukrainian units were established by the Wehrmacht.See also:Marek Getter (1996)."Policja Polska w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie 1939–1945".Polish Police in the General Government 1939–1945. Przegląd Policyjny nr 1-2. Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Policji w Szczytnie. pp. 1–22. Archived fromthe original(WebCite cache) on 26 June 2013.
Reprint, with extensive statistical data, atPolicja Państwowa webpage.
{{cite web}}:External link in|quote=Listed locations includedLviv,Ternopil,Stanislavov,Lutsk, Rivne,Yavoriv,Kamenetz-Podolsk,Drohobych, Borislav,Dubno, Sambor,Kostopol,Sarny, Kozovyi,Zolochiv,Berezhany,Pidhaytsi,Kolomyya,Rava-Ruska, Obroshyno,Radekhiv, Gorodok, Kosovo,Terebovlia, Vyshnivtsi,Zbarazh,Zhytomyr andFastov.See also:Karel C. Berkhoff; Marco Carynnyk (23 December 1999)."The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Its Attitude toward Germans and Jews".Research Library.3/4. Harvard Ukrainian Studies:149–150.
Ukraine differs from other parts of the German-occupied Soviet Union, whereas the local administrators have formed theHilfsverwaltung in support of extermination policies in 1941 and 1942, and in providing assistance for the deportations to camps in Germany, mainly in 1942 and 1943.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Virtual Shtetl (2016)."Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland".Museum of the History of the Polish Jews. Archived fromthe original on 8 February 2016.Gedeon (2012) [2004]."Getta Żydowskie". Izrael. Badacz.org. Sampol. Archived from the original on 22 November 2012 – via Internet Archive.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)See also:Yitzhak Arad (1987).Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press.ISBN 0-253-34293-7.Deportations to Belzec from Sambor, 4–6 August 1942: 4,000 Jews; 17–18 October: 2,000 and 22 October 1942: 2,000 Jews. Stary Sambor deportation, 5–6 August: 1,500.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Sambor, March 1943: 900[372] April 1943: 1000[390] June 1943: 100s[422]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)49°18′36″N23°07′16″E / 49.310°N 23.1210°E /49.310; 23.1210
