In May 1941, the Nazis established the Łuków ghetto, which was comprised of three separate parts: the buildings in the vicinity of Browarna Street, from Krzna to Kozia; the Międzyrzecka, Pastewnika, Kanałowa, Laskowskiego and Wyszyńskiego streets; the Zdanowskiego, Staropijańska, Międzyrzecka and Rynek (perpendicular to Kwiatkowskiego). The ghetto area was not fenced out, yet on November 4, 1941 the occupant issued an order to leave the place of residency under threat of death. Just as in other ghettos, in the "Jewish district" in Łuków the living conditions were catastrophic. Density was one of the problems--it was not uncommon for one room to accomodate more than one or two families. There was insuficient sanitation and lack of food. The Germans demanded forced labor for the Third Reich. Going out into the street not infrequently ended up with a beating or an execution. Death waited also on those inhabitants of the “Aryan side” who helped the Jews. Krzysztof Czubaszek, in his Żydzi Łukowa i Okolic (Jews of the Łuków Region), mentions some incidents from that time: “In the early 1942, gendarmerie shot to death Maj Rozenblum and Szepsel Nasielski—the reason being only that they worked in their hats. A few days later, they raped twenty Jewesses, the wife of a shoemaker, Szmul Sztajnberg, among them. When the husband tried to save his wife, he was brought to the ground with a hammer.

The Germans had been planning the dissolution of the ghetto for the last days of August 1942. Twenty five carriages were waiting in Łuków. They left empty, though. The camp in Treblinka could not “accommodate” another transpor at that time. The action of relocation was rescheduled. In mid-September 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by a wall.

The first “action” begun on October 5, 1942. Early morning, the German gendarmerie, backed by the Latvians and Ukrainians, and the blue police, surrounded the ghetto and proceeded to chase the Jews out of their homes into the market square. The proceedings were unusually brutal—it is estimated that in those days, in the streets of Łuków, around five hundred people of Jewish descent had been killed, the patients and personnel of the hospital included. Krzysztof Czubaszek quotes a fragment of Stanisław Żemiński's relation. Żemiński remembered that the oppressors threw people out the windows onto the pavement, or kicked to death. The action lasted a few days. After around five thousand had been gathered, they were hurried into the carriages, waiting to take them to the camp in Treblinka. On October 8, 1942, the Germans lured around two thousand people into the Judenrat office, among them those hiding in town. They were also sent to Treblinka. Left was only a small group of Jews used for cleaning works in the ghetto, searching for loot or burying the dead.

In mid-October 1942, the inhabitants of Adamów, Wojcieszków, Stanin, Ulan, Kocek, Tuchowicz and Trzebieszow, villages in the vicinity of Łuków, were relocated into the town. They stay in Łuków was not long—they were deported by the Nazis to Treblinka as soon as on October 26. Again, many executions were performed at that time. Two days later the Germans established a temporary ghetto in Łuków, in which the remaining Jews from the neighboring villages and hamlets were placed. In November around seven hundred people from Kock were brought to Łuków. This group was also transported to Treblinka.

Afterwards, the ghetto was limited to the synagogue district and Kanałowa, Jatkowa and Międzyrzecka streets. The Jews who lived there worked either in the Gestapo warehouses or in a company that was engaged in buying out eggs. In December 1942, “in order to lower employment,” the Nazis shot around five or six hundred Jews to death.

The final deportation took place on May 2, 1943. On this date, the Germans transported around two or three thousand people to Treblinka. Łuków became “Judenrein.”

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Sources: Czubaszek, Krzysztof. Żydzi Łukowa i Okolic