The German army entered Rawa Mazowiecka on 8 September 1939, and there was terror in the town from the first moments of their presence.  Already on 10 September 1939, 40 residents of the town, including 23 Jews, were shot for the alleged murder of a German person. The Germans harassed and abused the Jewish population. They cut off their beards, inter alia. They ordered all men to gather at the market square. There was Rabbi Rappoport among them, who was in mourning for his son at that time (he died during the bombing of the town). To save his beard, the rabbi's family asked the local pastor to intercede.  As a result of the intervention, the rabbi was not shaved; however, he received 100 lashes. The rabbi was taken to the hospital afterwards, where he died after a few days.  Other forms of repression against the Jewish population were round-ups, arrests on false or imagined charges and executions.  Some representatives of the Jewish community decided to escape from Rawa Mazowiecka to Skierniewice.

As early as in October 1939, the Germans established the Judenrat (the Jewish Council) in Rawa composed of activists from the pre-war Jewish community. The Jewish police was established over the following months. Jewish shops and factories were confiscated and handed over to Christians.  Huge levies were imposed on the Jewish community of nearly three thousand in Rawa. Those who refused to pay were arrested.  Jews were sent to forced labour sites, e.g. to manage the flow of a river near Tomaszów Mazowiecki, to construct a bridge on the Rawka River, and to a labour camp near Lublin. 

At the beginning of 1940,  the Germans created a transit camp in Rawa Mazowiecka at Skierniewicka Street  (ul. Skierniewicka). It was intended for refugees from Rawa or those stopping on their way from the areas incorporated into the Reich  (e.g. Łódź, Brzeziny, Zgierz). 

At the beginning of [1.1] 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Rawa Mazowiecka.  The ghetto consisted of two parts.  One of them covered the former Jewish district at Jerozolimska  and Berka Joselewicza streets. The other one - probably the area at Łowicka Street (ul. Łowicka) (behind the bridge on the Rawka River).  The territory of the ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire but it was not closed.  For people imprisoned in the ghetto, it was not difficult to contact the so-called  Aryan side in to obtain food. At the beginning of 1942,  the ghetto was closed.

People from other towns were also sent to the ghetto in Rawa, e.g. from Biała Rawska, Skierniewice, Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą. In the spring of 1941,  a typhus epidemic broke out in the overcrowded ghetto, followed by another one a year later. In the ghetto, the Jews died as a result of diseases, starvation and immediate executions performed in, e.g. the Rawa castle. 

The liquidation of the ghetto began on 27 October 1942. The day before, approximately 4,000   Jews were transported from Biała Rawska to Rawa Mazowiecka and spent the night in the open air. In the morning, the Germans surrounded the ghetto.  The Jews were forced to leave their houses and were transported to the Nazi German extermination camp - Treblinka II. Many people were killed during the liquidation action in the town.  Approximately 500 people remained in the ghetto. A work commando was formed from some of them to organise the ghetto.  Some people were sent to the ghetto in Ujazd. Others were transported to the ghetto in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, which was finally liquidated on 2 November 1942. 

Out of the nearly 2,500 thousand Jews from Rawa, several dozen people survived the war.  In October 1945, there were 33 Jews left in Rawa, who decided to leave quite quickly. 

References:

• Kraemer J., Rawa Mazowiecka, [in:] Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, gen. ed. G. P. Megaree, vol. 2, p. A, Bloomington - Indianapolis, 2012, pp. 298-300.
• Rawa Mazowiecka, [in:] Pinkas ha-kehilot. Polin, k. 1, Lodz weha-galil, Jeruszalajim 1976, pp. 257-160.
• Urbański K., Zagłada Żydów w dystrykcie radomskim, Kraków 2004.