On 15 June 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in Hrubieszów.  Its territory was defined by the following streets: Ludna, Jatkowa and Rynek.  The local Jewish population and people displaced from nearby towns, as well as from Kraków, Warszawa, Grudziądz, Kalisz and Łódź, were sent there.  It is known that in May 1942, there were 5,690 people in the newly established Jewish quarter.  As a result of further resettlements, the number of residents in the quarter reached 10,000 in June 1942.

Crossing the borders of the ghetto was punishable by death, and that order was scrupulously enforced by the Germans. The administration of the ghetto was entrusted to "the puppet" Jewish Council (the so-called Judenrat), headed by Izaak Rabinowicz.

As in other ghettos, the living conditions of the Jews in Hrubieszów were very hard. They were used for backbreaking labour for the occupant, including in local forced labour camps.  Immediate executions were the order of the day.

The liquidation of the Jewish community in Hrubieszów was performed by the Germans in several stages. On 10 June 1942, the majority (according to the Encyclopedia of camps and ghettos 1933-1945 – approximately 5,000) of the residents of the ghetto were transported to the Nazi German extermination camp in Sobibór and killed in the gas chambers.
 On 15 June 1942, approximately 2,600 survivors were sent to the residual ghetto located between Metalowa and Nowy Rynek streets.

The third deportation action took place on 22 October 1942, during which the Germans deported approximately 3,000 Jews to the camp in Sobibór. In November, probably approximately 500 people in hiding were shot in the town, including those at the Jewish cemetery.

The Germans left a group of approximately 200 Jewish workers in the town, who were employed to tidy up the ghetto; however, in May 1943, they too were sent to the labour camp in Budzyń. The final liquidation of the ghetto took place in the period from July to September 1943.

References

  • Berenstein T., “Martyrologia, opór i zagłada ludnosci żydowskiej w dystrykcie lubelskim”, Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute, no. 21, 1957
  • Hrubieszów [in] Encyclopedia of camps and ghettos 1933-1945, volume II, part A, ed. M. Dean, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2012, p. 634-636
  • Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945. Informator encyklopedyczny, ed. Cz. Pilichowski, Warszawa 1979.
  • Zapała M., Hitlerowskie obozy i getta na ziemi hrubieszowskiej w okresie okupacji w latach 1939–1944, „Biuletyn Towarzystwa Regionalnego Hrubieszowskiego” [online] http://www.hrubieszow.info/wiara/zydzi/zydzi.htm [accessed: 15 May 2014, link not active 16 June 2023].

 

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