Nowy Sącz Ghetto
The Nowy Sącz Ghetto known in German as Ghetto von Neu Sandez and in Yiddish as צאנז (Tsanz; Zanc) or נײ-סאנץ (Nay-Sants; Nojzanc) was a World War II ghetto set up by Nazi Germany for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Polish Jews in the city of Nowy Sącz during occupation of Poland.[2]
The relocation of Jews continued ever since the German army rolled into Nowy Sącz on 6 September 1939 in the first week of the invasion of Poland. Synagogues and prayer houses were devastated and turned into storehouses.[3] The Ghetto was filled with 20,000 prisoners from the city and all neighbouring settlements and closed off from the outside officially in June 1941. It was liquidated one year later with all Jewish men, women and children rounded up and sent aboard Holocaust trains to Bełżec extermination camp in late August 1942.[2]
Background
According to records, historic Nowy Sącz was populated by the Jews at least since 1469,[4] contributing greatly to the town's overall economy throughout its history. Most Jews lived and worked in the Zakamienica neighbourhood by the Kamienica river. The first brick-and-mortar synagogue was built there in 1699, tax-exempt.[5] Nowy Sącz was an influential centre of Hasidic Judaism and the Zionist movement dating back to the 19th century. Some 30 percent of the total population of 34,000 residents of Nowy Sącz were Jewish before the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.[1] In the city centre 90% of tenement houses were owned by Jews.[4]
On 6 September 1939 the Germans took over Nowy Sącz and renamed it Neu-Sandez. The command of the city was given to SS-Obersturmführer Heinrich Hamann from Gestapo (de) (pl).[6] Nowy Sącz (Neu-Sandez) became part of the General Government Distrikt Krakau in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet pact against Poland.[7] The persecution of Jews began soon thereafter.[2] The new German administration ordered all Jewish businesses closed pending confiscation proceedings.[2] In the spring of 1940 the Judenrat was formed on German orders.[2] The first mass execution of Jews and Poles took place in May 1940,[2] in the course of the German AB-Aktion in Poland.[8] The city block surrounding the German office of Sicherheitspolizei was cleared of all so-called undesirables.[9] Nearly 1,000 people were murdered in covert shooting actions.[1]
Ghetto history
Dispossessed Jews were resettled to Nowy Sącz in several major deportation actions from the neighbouring towns of Muszyna, Krynica (1000–1200),[10] Piwniczna, but also from Łódź, Sieradz, Kraków, Lwów and Bielsko.[2] The ghetto formation was pronounced by Hamann in June 1941 at which time a 2–3 metre wall was erected along its perimeter,[4][11] although the ghetto zone existed already since 12 July 1940.[4] It consisted of two interconnected parts of the city centre, both very small. One of them, around Kazimierza Wielkiego Street, and the second one, in the Piekło neighbourhood. Some 12,000 Jews were forced to relocate there. In the following months, more Jews were resettled to Nowy Sącz from the General Government and territories of Poland annexed by Nazi Germany; forced by the SS to subsist on little to nothing in extremely overcrowded conditions. Often 20 people were assigned to one room. The Ghetto was entirely dependent on the German authorities for food. Starvation rations were introduced. In the fall of 1941, some 30 Jews where caught and murdered following failed escape attempt across the border to the Soviet occupied eastern part of Poland.[2] The number of Jews in the ghetto grew to 18,000.[4]
A number of forced labour camps were set up in the vicinity of Nowy Sącz for the able-bodied prisoners, including the camp in Rożnów (improperly, Różanów) as well as camps in Stary Sącz, Chełmiec, Rytro, and Lipie.[4] The slave labour was concentrated in the Zakamienica ghetto between the river bank and the streets of Zdrojowa (to the north), Hallera, Barska, and Lwowska (to the south).[4] A system of gradually escalating terror was introduced with publicly announced executions. About 200 men were murdered for alleged Zionist activities, another 70 men were shot for alleged cigarette-smuggling, both within two days of each other.[2]
From August 23, 1942, over a three day period, the final ghetto liquidation action took place under the guise of resettlement (Umsiedlung).[12] Prior to that, the families with women and children, elderly and the sick were moved to the ghetto at Kazimierza Wielkiego Street. Most of them, unable to leave, were shot point blank by Ordnungspolizei during early morning roundups. All Jews gathered for deportation were kept at an open field by the river, not far from the rail bridge across Dunajec. They were ordered to bring travel food, light luggage, and keys to their homes, because they would be transferred to labour camps in Reichskommissariat Ukraine. During a selection, approximately 750 young males were taken to be sent to labour camps in nearby Muszyna, Różanów, and Sędziszów Małopolski.[11] All other Jews, estimated at at least 15,000 were kept on the river bank overnight, and taken in three Holocaust transports to the Bełżec death camp at August 25-28, 1942.[11] The Neu-Sandez (Nowy Sącz) Ghetto was no more.[9]
See also
Media related to History of Nowy Sącz at Wikimedia Commons
Notes
- ^ a b c "History of Nowy Sącz". Virtual Shtetl. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i "Nowy Sącz Ghetto. Part three". Virtual Shtetl. POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 2015. p. 3. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ "Synagoga w Nowym Sączu" (in Polish). Virtual Shtetl. 2009.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g "Śladami kultury i historii Żydów Małopolskich" [On the trail of Jewish history and culture of Lesser Poland: Nowy Sącz]. Małopolskie Szlaki Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego. 2012.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ "Ślady i Judaica. Nowy Sącz". Serwis informacyjny Diapozytyw. Instytut Adama Mickiewicza – via Internet Archive.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ Łukasz Połomski (2013). "Crimes of the Obersurmführer Heinrich Hamann in the Nowy Sącz Ghetto". Kamienica z historią (in English and Polish). Stowarzyszenie Rodzicielstwa Zastępczego “Betlejem”.
- ^ Czesław Madajczyk (1988). Die okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939-1945 (in German). Pahl-Rugenstein, Akademie-Verlag Berlin. ISBN 3050003022.
- ^ J. Bieńka (17 April 2013). "Poszukiwany Heinrich Hamann". Heinrich Hamann – w cieniu swastyki. Rocznik Sądecki, tom XXII.
- ^ a b Robin O'Neil. "Rabka Police School". The Rabka Four: A Warning from History by Robin O'Neil. Spiderwize, 2011. ARC 2005. ISBN 1908128151.
- ^ Avraham Klevan (1982). "The Jewish Communities Of Poland (alphabetically - letter: K)". Jerusalem: We Remember.
- ^ a b c "Nowy Sącz Getto. Part four". Virtual Shtetl. 2015. pp. 1–4. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ Wolfgang Curilla (2011). Der Judenmord in Polen und die deutsche Ordnungspolizei 1939-1945. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh GmbH & CoKG. p. 397. ISBN 3506770438.
References
- Anna Dominik, Pedagogical University of Kraków (24 April 2014), Świeczka dla 480 ofiar masakry (Candle for the 480 victims of a massacre) Twój Sącz online. Template:Pl icon
- Marlot Wandel, Personal testimony on hiding as a child in the Radom Ghetto (PDF file, direct download) Yadvashem.org – Testimony of Marlot Wandel, pages. 3-4.