Dembitz, Poland
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{Hebrew text – pp 141-147; Yiddish text – 148-155.}
A few residents of the city were killed in the bombardment, and immediately a disorderly flight to the villages took place. Most of the Jews of the old city fled to the villages of Wolka and Wiewiorka. The Jews of the new city fled in the direction of Lisa Gora, Stobierna, Stasiowka, and Niedzwiada. When they returned to their homes the following day in order to fetch some of their belongings, it became evident that most of the moveable property had been pillaged by the gentiles from the villages near and far. Their neighbors in the city also participated in the pillage.
Families were separated in the great confusion, and family members were searching for each other. It took a few days until we reunited. The bridge over the Wislok was destroyed by the bombardment, and it was necessary to cross in a raft. The bombardments continued.
The civic authorities disbanded, and there was no policing until the entry of the German army on Friday September 8.
While the refugees from Dembitz were still searching for shelter in the villages, the rumor spread among them that the Germans were murdering any Jewish male who they find. Immediately, the flight eastward began. A portion of the refugees succeeded in crossing the San River, which had been conquered in the interim by the German army. Others, whom the Germans intercepted along the route, gave up on the flight and returned from whence they came. At first, only the women were brave enough to return to the city, and later the men began to return as well. They found their homes pillaged and destroyed. Nevertheless, there was some degree of respite. For the time being, it seemed as if the mortal danger that was looking down upon them was lifted. The Germans did not pillage or murder. They sufficed themselves in snatching Jews from the streets and the houses in order to conscript them for cleaning their institutions. They were assisted by the gentiles, who showed them where to find the Jews.
Approximately two weeks after the conquest, Staron, the former mayor, was called to return to his post as head of the civic government.
One Sabbath eve, Tovia Zucker and a few other Jews were called to the building of the former regional governor (Starosta). They were received by German S. S. men from the Rzeszow command who informed them that they must provide a set number of sheets and bedding items to the Germans by morning, and woe would be unto the Jews if they did not fulfill this order. That night, they sent collectors around to the Jewish houses, and everything requested was given over the Germans in accordance with the order.
At this meeting, the beginning of the “Jewish government” over the Jews was established, which later on consolidated into the Judenrat. In accordance with the advice of Staron, Tuvia Zucker was chosen for this position, as he was the most honorable Jew who remained in the city, since the head of the community Reb Avraham Goldman fled to Russia.
Immediately after the entry of the Germans to Dembitz, the public schools were forbidden to teach Jewish children. The Polish gymnasia, the only one in Dembitz, was closed. The cheders were closed and the children studied in a private manner in the houses of the teachers, or were taught by their parents to the best of their ability. People who could afford it purchased some books for their homes. The Torah scrolls were removed from the synagogues and divided up among the Jewish residents.
At the beginning of the occupation, the Jews of Tarnobrzeg (Dzikow) and Rozwadow were expelled to the other side of the San. Most of them remained in the Russian district. Some of them returned and obtained permission to settle in their former cities, through the intercession of the Judenrat of Dembitz and the aforementioned vice district head. The lot of the Jews of Mielec was worse. They were expelled under German provocation immediately after the conquest, at a time when several dozen of them were murdered when they were together in the Jewish bathhouse.
During the early period of the Nazi occupation of Dembitz, the Germans did not place any special restrictions upon Jewish business. The Jews were permitted to move around freely, even by train, until the middle of 1940. The Jews of Dembitz would travel to Tarnow to purchase merchandise from the wholesalers without being disturbed. They were also suppliers of the German army institutions, and received fair and customary payment.
The Germans apparently were not overly interested in the businesses of Dembitz, for there was only one privately owned German store, owned by the German Haze, which sold only iron merchandise.
In General, there were no incidents of pillage and murder in Dembitz, whether from the Nazis or the Poles.
The only decree placed specially on the Jews at that time was the “work obligation” through the Judenrat. This was set up on the advice of Staron, the mayor before the war, whom the Nazis put in charge of the city for a short time after the conquest. From that time, the Judenrat would send Jews to work for the Germans according to their needs, rather than having them being snatched up by the soldiers as happened in the early days of the occupation. They worked in offices and barracks, cleaned the streets, cleared the ruins of the bombardments, etc. The Germans accepted Staron's suggestion willingly.
The situation came to the point where the young Jews would attempt to find work in the official places, on account of the humane way that they were treated in those places. They also received work permits so that they would not be snatched up by the soldiers for work in other places.
During the winter months of 1939-1940, an unorganized escape movement was established from the area of the German district to the Russian district. Several dozen young people from occupied Dembitz moved over to the Russian district in this manner. The Germans knew about this and did not pay attention. However, the Russians would capture the escapees, imprison them, interrogate them, and accuse them of being German spies.
Nevertheless, when the refugees of Western Galicia found out about business in the west, and the proper relations that were established after the initial confusion – a reverse movement began among the refugees in the summer of 1940: they returned to their former places even though they were under Nazi rule. The Russian authorities noticed this and could not understand why anyone would want to return to the Nazi areas. They set up a registration for all those who wished to return, and then they deported all of those who were registered to areas in the interior of Soviet Russia – and thanks to this, many were able to survive.
In those days, a command was issued by the General Gubernator Frank whose seat was in Krakow, that all Jewish men and women were required to tie a white band with a green or blue Star of David on their right arms. The Jews of Dembitz began to feel that they were caught in a trap that had no exit.
At the time of the registration, a work office was established whose job was to employ any person who was able. Some of the Polish young men were sent to work in Germany. Not so with the Jews, who were only employed locally, in coordination with the Judenrat. A member of the National Socialist party from Germany headed the office. Anshel Taub, the son of Nathan, was the intermediary between the Judenrat and the work office. During the early period, this work was paid work, even for the Jews. It is obvious that there were some Jews of poor means who went to this work willingly. According to the law, every Jew was required to work a certain number of days per week. The Judenrat set up a possibility of exchange: if someone were to pay the Judenrat in return for the daily work assignment, they would be freed for that day, and someone else would go to work in order to receive the payment.
When it became known that there was monetary value attached to the go between function of the Judenrat, conflicts over the head position broke out. Tovia Zucker was pushed aside, or stepped aside, and Yossel Taub, the son of Nathan, became the head.
The main work that the Germans required was the expansion of communication networks and the building of giant factories for the railway industry. Later, it became clear that this was in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union. Dembitz had already become an important communication center from the time of Polish rule, and the Germans enlarged it significantly. All of the buildings that were erected by the “Central Manufacturing District” (“Czentralny Okreg Przemyslowy”) were taken over by the Germans for storehouses for military supplies and ammunition.
In June 1940, the first round up (Eblawe) for the Postikow work camp took place. Anyone who could not prove that he was working in a government or military institution was sent off to be imprisoned in the Postikow camp. Jews from other cities of Galicia as well as from Congress Poland were also brought to Postikow.
The Judenrat of Dembitz had a great deal of work. People turned to it with requests to take action to free those imprisoned, obviously by bribing the head of the camp. The head of the Jewish camp of Postikow was Uber Schar Fuehrer Kopps, and the Judenrat knew how to “deal” with him. In accordance with his orders, and with the assistance of the soldiers who helped him, Jews were taken out of the camp and returned to Dembitz, from where they returned to their places of residence.
Due to the proximity of Postikow to Dembitz, a distance of only approximately ten kilometers, the contact with the S. S. soldiers who ran the camp took place in Dembitz itself. At first it was decided that the supplies and the kitchen of the Jewish camp in Postikow should be run by the Judenrat. A new organization was set up for the Jewish forced laborers, called “Zelbst Helfe” (“Self Help”). This organization was centered in Krakow and Dembitz, and was headed by Izak Shachner, the son-in-law of Getzel Laufbahn. It would receive shipments of sugar and pork from time to time for distribution to the Jews of the camp and the city council. Since Jews had no need for the pork, exchanges were made between the Jewish institution and the city council: the city council would receive the pork for the Polish population, and in exchange, the Jews would receive an amount of sugar. Obviously, the Polish population had the better part of the deal. The first public kitchen in Dembitz, located in the basement of the Talmud Torah building, was established by Zelbst Helfe.
The Jews of Dembitz had to leave their dwellings, homes, stores, and workshops that had been set up through the course of centuries, and concentrate themselves into the designated place, which included only one alley out of all the roads in the city, the Potters' Lane (Tepper Gesel) and the lots that extended to the infantry barracks, where the S. S. resided.
The Jews left their homes, stores and workshops, and their gentile neighbors took them over, in accordance with the order that was set by the city hall.
At the time of the transfer to the ghetto, the Jews attempted to sell whatever property they could. All of the rest was left to the new residents, without payment. Since the buildings in the alley could not accommodate such a large population, bunks were built that could accommodate twenty people each. The dwellings in the ghetto were distributed by the Judenrat in accordance with each person's needs, but there was a set number of square meters allotted to each person. The crowding was great. However, it is important to point out that epidemics did not break out in the ghetto until much later. Dr. Mantzer of Andrichow and Dr. Idek (Yehuda) Tau of Dembitz, the son of Simcha Tau, served as doctors in the ghetto. They established and directed a sick room.
The transfer to the ghetto cut off the contact of the Jews of Dembitz with the outside world. From that time on, it was forbidden for a Jew to appear outside the ghetto without a special permit. Business and even postal contact were cut off.
The vast majority of the Jews of Dembitz were employed in public works, especially in the expansion of the train station, as well in German firms as paid employees. Of course, the means of conducting business changed. There were no more business dealings and requests for advice, so to speak. From that time, the Jews were treated as the private property of the Gestapo.
With the establishment of the ghetto in Dembitz, as well as throughout the cities of Galicia, the responsibility for governing the Jews was removed from the local authorities and transferred to the Gestapo. The head of the Gestapo in Dembitz, from the time of the beginning of Nazi rule until the time of the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto, was a German from Vienna named Gabler.
The first activity of the Gestapo in the ghettos was the separation of those who were fit for work from those who were not fit for work. The latter were the first to be sent off to the death camps.
Until 1943, the death camp to which the Jews of Galicia and Silesia were sent was Belzec.
In Dembitz as in other places,
the Gestapo speedily changed the composition of the Judenrat, so that it would
be fit for its new role. The former members of the Judenrat were replaced for
the most part with members of the Jewish “Ordinungs Dienst” who were
already used to accepting German orders.
Gabler, the Gestapo chief of
Dembitz, behaved like all the other Germans in his first contacts with the
Jews, that is to say that he attempted to derive the maximum personal benefit
from them. He would often ask of the Jews all sorts of things, under the
pressure of threats, and they did not refuse him. At first, he did not behave
rudely toward them, and he himself did not shoot at his victims until the first
aktion. Dembitz had a policeman of the Schupo (the German police) by the name
of Urban, one of the Volkes Deutsche, who tormented the Jews for a variety of
reasons: for example, if one was caught outside the ghetto without a permit or
travelling on the train. Urban would capture the offenders, take them to the
Jewish cemetery and shoot them dead. It was impossible for this to take place
without the knowledge of Gabler, who behaved as a polite man and protected the
law and order. It was only at the time of the first “ausziedlung”,
which he personally conducted, that Gabler removed the mask from his face. At
that time, he displayed all characteristics of an experienced Gestapo man.
The Germans employed the Jews of the ghetto as they did previously in all sorts of work outside of the ghetto, primarily in the expansion of the railway lines and the building of shelters for the locomotives, which were known to be among the largest in all of Galicia.
From the time of the establishment of the ghetto, rumors began to circulate from various places regarding the deportation of Jews eastward by train. Nobody knew the reason for the deportations. The first transport that was known to the Jews of Dembitz not only by hearsay was of the Jews from Wolbrom, in Poland. Jews from the Dembitz ghetto who worked on the railway spoke with the deportees through the windows of the wagons, as the train rested for a few minutes near the station. These rumors augmented the fear and confusion. The Jews of Dembitz began to suspect that their turn would also come. A day or two before June 29, 1942, Jews from Sediszow, Ropszyce, Wielopole, Pilzno, Radomysl, and all of the villages of the region, including also apostates, were brought into the Dembitz ghetto.
A dark fear fell upon the Jews of the ghetto. The Jews began to search for hiding places with gentiles outside of the ghetto; some of these arrangements were through friendship and others through payment of money. Indeed, there were numerous cases of slander by the Poles. Those who were captured were taken to the cemetery and shot.
On the night of June 29
th
, the ghetto was surrounded by S. S. men from a special commando unit that was
responsible for the murder of Jews (Juden Farnichtungs Kommando) along with
the Polish police. In the early hours of the morning, Gabler appeared in the
ghetto along with his assistants and non-local Gestapo men, including Heinrich
Wakunda, the head of the murder effort of the Jews of Galicia, and the official
of the Judenrat in order to collect the work certificates (arbeits karte) that
had been previously distributed by the work office (arbeit amt). This
collection took place until the afternoon.
The next day, Yosef Taub, the
head of the Judenrat, was called to the Gestapo and told to gather all of the
Jews together for a selection to see who would remain in the place and who
would be sent away (according to their words, to work in the east). The work
permits, signed by the Gestapo, would be returned only to those who would be
remaining.
The Judenrat fulfilled this
decree in an exacting fashion. When Yosef Taub left the Gestapo office, he
informed everyone that they must gather in the street between the house of Wolf
Ader and the house of Shlomo Herschlag the baker. This took place. At the set
time, most of the residents of the ghetto, as well as those who had recently
come in from outside, gathered in the designated place.
In the hours of the afternoon,
the Gestapo men sat at a table that was set up in the place next to the
“Lunka”, and the residents of the ghetto passed before them, every
person with his family, as young sheep
[1]
41. All of those who had their work permits returned to them by the Judenrat
held their permits in their hands and returned to a designated gathering place
in the ghetto along with their families after the permit was signed by the
Gestapo. Those whose permits were not returned to them (those who were older
than age forty or fifty, as well as those whose work places were not recognized
by the Gestapo committee) were brought to a second gathering place, directly
below the Kaszanza Lunka.
After this selection, the
Gestapo men, assisted by the Polish police and members of the Jewish
“Ordinungs Dienst”, went through the bunks and houses in order to
search for anyone who was hiding. They found several dozen Jews who were
brazen enough to hide. They were brought directly to the cemetery and shot on
the spot.
That day, a large transport
arrived by train. This transport included all of the Jews of Tarnobrzeg and
Rozwadow. They were brought to the lower gathering place, and only four or
five men from among them were brought to the upper gathering place, in
accordance with the whim of the Gestapo man who was responsible for bringing
the arrivals to the lower gathering place.
The rain was pouring down, and
the ground of the Lunka turned into mud. The Jews of Dembitz, Sediszow,
Ropszyce, Wielopole, Pilzno, Tarnobrzeg and Rozwadow waited in fear and
trembling for the command. The angels of destruction of the S. S. kept the
crowds orderly, dividing them into various groups. Suddenly the command was
issued: “Kneel down!”. The entire large crowd of men, women and
children knelt down in the mud.
The Gestapo men approached the
rows of kneeling people, and removed about 180 or 200 men. Those were placed
on transport trucks and driven by the S. S. men to the edge of the Wilicka
Forest at Lisa Gora. They were brought into the forest, and shot into a
communal grave that had previously been prepared by the Polish Junaks. The
Junaks were then called to cover over the grave at the conclusion of the
dreadful murder.
This took place on the 7
One group of those gathered in
the lower gathering place was sent to Rzeszow to work in the Messerschmidt
airplane parts factory. Some of them survived. Similarly, a few people from
the group of young people who were sent to work in the “Flugzweig Werk
Mielec” remained alive. A third group of young people was sent to work in
Postikow, to the labor camp (Zwanges Lager) that was founded at the time of the
liquidation of the Jews of Mielec. Only one person of this group, Yisrael
Reiner, survived.
At the conclusion of these
events, the Gestapo decreed that anyone caught without a signed document would
be shot. The S. S. left the ghetto. The Polish police guarded the ghetto from
the outside, and the Ordinungs Dienst from the inside.
Yisrael Leib Frankel, the
son-in-law of Reuven (Reuveli) Kluger, conducted an underground Yeshiva. He
was a young man in his early thirties, born in Rozodol. He was a Hassid of
Belz, and learned most of his Torah, including the hidden Torah
[2]
in the Beis Midrashes of Tarnow.
Reb Yisrael Leib opened up a
Yeshiva in Dembitz a few years prior to the Nazi invasion, and this Yeshiva
functioned until the outbreak of the war. When the Nazi army entered the city,
the former students disbanded, and Reb Yisrael Leib gathered a different group
of young people around him, aged between 14 and 16, primarily the children of
lay householders. The studies were conducted in the attic of Yosef Rosh in the
vicinity of the rabbi's house. The functioning of this Yeshiva under the
conditions that prevailed at that time was literally a sanctification of the
name of G-d.
The studies continued in this
manner from the spring of 1940 until the autumn of 1941, that is to say until
the beginning of the roundups for the Postikow camp. At first, Reb Yisrael
Leib himself was sent off to Postikow, but he was later freed in return for a
bribe.
Each morning at 8:30 a.m. the
studies would begin with a class in Gemara, tractate Shabbat with the
commentaries of Tosafot, Rambam (Maimonides) and Rashba. At noontime and in
the afternoon, they would review the class. In the evenings, the students,
either on their own or in groups, would study general studies. Some prepared
for the Polish matriculation exams. The rabbi saw no contradiction between the
holy and secular studies. He himself was secularly educated – they said
of him that he was an expert in world literature. He had a general orientation
toward worldly matters.
Reb Yisrael Leib did not only
teach practical Jewish law (halachah) to his students. He also lectured to
them on homiletic material (aggadah) and character improvement (mussar). He
also touched on mystical matters. On one occasion, after the outbreak of the
war between Hitler and Russia, several of his students and other youths came
before Reb Yisrael Leib to hear his opinion on the victories of Hitler on the
eastern front, which were announced by proclamations on the main streets of the
city. This news instilled great trepidation in the hearts of the Jews,
particularly in the youth, for everyone hoped that the battle with the Soviet
Union would result in the imminent defeat of the Nazi army. Reb Yisrael Leib
said: “On a practical level, these victories are only passing episodes,
and from a mystical, religious level, they are actually signs of the
redemption.” Those gathered together left the discussion encouraged and
full of hope. In general, he was always filled with joy and faith.
On Passover of 1942, the
Judenrat sent Reb Yisrael Leib and his family to greater Radomysl along with
dozens of other families. The purpose of the transport was, so to speak, to
relieve the crowding in the Dembitz ghetto. However, on the fifth of Av, Reb
Yisrael Leib, along with all the Jews of Radomysl, returned to the Dembitz
ghetto. In the first Ausziedlung, he was sent along with 200 Jews of Dembitz
to the S. S. punishment camp in Postikow, where he died.
His students included the two
sons of Reb Yechezkel Shochet, the son of the baker Aharon Yaakov (the three of
them are now in America), Tzvi Lisha, Menachem Ofan (living in Israel),
Yitzchak Salomon, the two sons of Yosef Roth, Yitzchak Epstein (all of whom
were murdered in Dembitz), as well as others.
In the summer of 1940, a
refugee from Krakow, Reb Moshe Schmid, came to Dembitz. He was approximately
sixty years old, one of the Torah giants of his city, one of those who was
licensed to examine students who were applying to enter the Yeshiva of Chachmei
Lublin. From the time he came to Dembitz, he would give the students a weekly
class in Talmudic didactics (pilpul) on the topic that they had learned that
week. His classes continued until the winter of 1941. He also was sent with
the transport to greater Radomysl, however he never returned from there. He
did not wish to return. He went out to the street with a Torah scroll and
declared that he did not wish to return. The Nazis shot him, and he gave up
his pure soul as he was reciting Shema, on that Sunday, the fifth of Av.
A day or two after the aktion,
those who had succeeded in hiding outside and had not been revealed started to
sneak back into the ghetto, either under the cover of the darkness of night or
along with groups of Jews returning from work.
In the meantime, the Germans
issued a decree to the Polish population outside the ghetto that whomever would
be found sheltering a Jew, or whomever would offer assistance to a Jew in any
manner, would be shot.
Negotiations began again with
the heads of the local German authorities in order to receive documents and
certificates for those who returned. The negotiators of the Judenrat were
Anshel Taub and Immerglick (from lesser Radomysl, the son-in-law of the butcher
Mordechai Goldfarb). Documents were sold for money, despite the warnings of
the Gestapo, for whoever would be found without a document would be shot.
(Yosef Taub would say: “It's only money! It's only money!”.) This
was conducted without keeping records: for in this manner, the Germans would
have exact knowledge of the number of Jews who remained.
In this period of time, until
the days of the 7
The Dembitz ghetto was
considered to be an “arbeit lager” (work camp). The barbed wire
fences surrounding the ghetto were shrunk, since there were only about 600
officially there. There were also people residing in the ghetto illegally, and
on occasion, some additional people arrived, who were no longer able to hide
outside.
It is worthy to point out that
in this period between the first aktion and the second aktion, there was no
incidence of reporting on Jews who were in hiding.
In this period, the Gestapo
turned over to the Judenrat a Jew from Mielec named Kaplan, on the condition
that he would make boots for the Gestapo men.
Since there was no word heard
from those who were sent eastward, and rumors began to circulate about the
death camp of Belzec, those that remained began to realize that their own end
was approaching, and the fear was great that nobody would survive.
The Germans provided the ghetto
residents with small food rations. Other food was brought into the ghetto by
those who went out to work, as well as gentiles who brought various provisions
to the gates of the ghetto, and received utensils, clothes, etc. in return.
On the 7
At that time, all of the family
members of the Taub, Schuldenfrei, and Schuss families were present. Anshel
Taub informed those present about the notification that he received from the
head of the work office (arbeit amt), that as of tomorrow, the only people who
would remain in the ghetto would be those employed by the railway and other
limited services that would be needed for the forced labor camp that would be
established instead of the work camp. This camp would be headed by Immerglick,
with Witkower as the secretary and Kaplan as the advisor.
Reuven Siedlisker was already
under the supervision of Munek Schuss, and only after urging did he permit him
to go to his friends and inform them who could remain in the ghetto and who
should flee. Any of those who heard the information and had any chance at all
of finding refuge fled the ghetto in the middle of the night.
This time, the aktion was very
brief. The ghetto was surrounded by the Ukrainian Zunder Dienst (Special
service) who was responsible for the black work. They again rounded up Jews,
in the same manner of the first aktion. All of those designated by Immerglick
(a haughty, irresponsible, and prattlesome character, who did not even have
family feelings) and his associates as workers in the railway and necessary
services, received new certificates and were returned to the gathering place
– this time the workers alone, without their families. The rest were
brought to the lower area near the bogs, and from there were loaded on the
train that was waiting for them. They were sent to Belzec.
At the conclusion of the
aktion, those that were no longer able to remain in their hiding places, as
well as a few who succeeded in jumping off the train, returned. A few people
even returned from Lancut. They made their return journey at night next to the
road or the railway tracks. Immerglick informed them that they would have to
leave the camp, for otherwise he would turn them over to the Gestapo. The only
place left to flee was the Bochnia ghetto, which still existed, and there were
rumors that it was still possible to live there.
Word was spread by the Nazis,
with a reliable basis, that from this time on, ghettos would remain in only
five places: Krakow, Tarnow, Bochnia, Przemysl and Rzeszow. The Nazis
intended to concentrate the Jews in only a few places. The Jews of Dembitz
fled primarily to Bochnia, by train, on foot or in any other manner that was
possible, with the help of gentiles who received a fee for their efforts.
The Gestapo relied on
Immerglick and his assistants, who were primarily members of the Ordinungs
Dienst, to bring the illegal residents of the camp, old people, sick people and
children (approximately 52 people) to a room in the Talmud Torah, as if a
hospital was being set up for them. However that night, he arrived along with
the members of the Ordinungs Dienst and Gabler, and they murdered them one by
one. The members of the Ordinungs Dienst held the victims in their arms, and
Gabler shot. One of the Jewish assistants was shot about two weeks later for
no apparent reason by that same Gabler, as he stood next to the gate at the
entrance to the camp.
The forced labor camp of
Dembitz existed until near Passover 5704 (1944). The camp was liquidated on
the eve of Passover. The Jewish workers were transferred to the
Jerozolimska-Krakow camp. The Jewish leadership of the camp remained in place
for another two weeks, along with their closest relatives. From there, they
were brought to the Flugzweig Werke camp in Mielec, and a few days later they
were taken out to be murdered by the Gestapo men, apparently upon the advice of
Gabler.
The Polish “Bahn
Polizei” (Railway Police), which included young Poles from Dembitz and the
surrounding area, played an important role in their murder. Even before this,
they would shoot Jews, based on recognition alone, who were found on the train
or in the area around it.
After the liquidation of the
camp, the Polish police conducted a search and shot anyone who was found
hiding. Those shot included the entire Schuss and Taub families, who were
hiding in the forests of Wielopole and Staszowka. The Polish police conducted
most of the searches for those hiding. Nevertheless, a few people survived,
including one family – Faust and Yechezkel Shochet.
Prior to the entry of the
groups into the train wagons – one group per wagon – about 150
people were separated from them, mostly young people, to be sent to work in the
P. Z. L. aircraft factory of Rzeszow, about 200 were sent to the S. S.
punishment camp in Postikow, and a small group of 40 young people were sent to
some place near Dembitz. The rest were loaded onto the trains and transported
eastward, apparently to the Belzec death camp.
There were forty Dembitz
natives among the 150 that were sent to Rzeszow. This group founded the
Flugzweigs-Fabrik Reichschauf camp (Reichschauf was the German term for
Rzeszow). The head of the camp was a man by the name of Alfred, a Dembitz
native who had settled in Germany and was returned to Poland via Zbaszyn
[4]
. His assistants were Walter from Dembitz, and Jurek, a refugee from Lodz who
lived in Dembitz during the war. Their behavior was extremely bad, and they
were responsible for numerous murders in the camp.
This camp existed until the
Russians approached Rzeszow in June 1944. It had a population of 500 people
who were skilled in engraving, and were worked at a greater pace than normal,
at 120%. The owner of the enterprise was the Heinkel firm.
At the last minute prior to
transfer of the work camp westward, there was an escape attempt that was foiled
through the efforts of the Jewish Zunder Dienst (Special Service). Seventeen
people managed to escape.
Of the forty Dembitz natives in
this camp, almost all remained alive until the time of the transfer. For the
most part, they survived after the transfer to other camps, continuing in their
engraving work for the Heinkel firm. They were spread out into thirteen
places: Plaszow, Wilicka (the airplane factory), Flossenberg (in Bavaria),
Kolmar (in France), the Oranienburg tunnel, Raunesweig (one of the enterprises
of Herman Goering), Neugamma near Hamburg (a central camp), Bremen, and
Bergen-Belsen. The latter was liberated on April 15, 1945, however no soldiers
of the British army came to take care of the survivors until the next day. The
English only appeared on Monday evening, and brought each person a quarter of a
loaf of bread and a box of lard. The survivors had not eaten for several days.
They ate and became ill with severe cases of dysentery, and thousands died.
The ill were left in bunks along with the dead without anyone to help them,
until a delegation was sent from block 12 (the Jewish block) to the Jewish army
chaplain of the British army to describe the situation to him. He sent several
girls of the first aid corps to take care of them, and the situation improved.
They remained there for two weeks until they were taken away from there.
Zayin.
That same day toward evening,
the rest of the people, approximately 4,000 Jews, including 2,000 Jews of
Dembitz, were brought to the train station and sent eastward in covered train
wagons. They were transported to the Belzec death camp. Several of them
jumped off the moving train.
Chet.
The study of Torah did not stop
in Dembitz even in the days of the Nazi conquest. Not only this, but scholars
conducted in depth study sessions as in earlier days. There were those who
concerned themselves with learning even in the underground.
Tet.
It is hard to describe the
feelings of trepidation among those who remained. A final sign was received
from one of those sent away – a postcard with the postal cancellation of
Przemysl, from Reb Naftalki Eisen. It is not known how this card came to the
mail in Dembitz, since it had already been some time since mail were received
in the ghetto.
Yod.
On the final night, at 10:00
p.m. Munek Schuss, one of the heads of the Ordinungs Dienst, came to Reuven
Siedlisker and told him that if he would agree to take some of the families of
the Judenrat along with him to the bunker that he prepared for himself in the
barn of the architect Krawczik in Grazilow – he would inform him of the
situation regarding the liquidation of the ghetto that was to take place the
next day. After Reuven consulted with his older brother Avraham, Reuven agreed
to the condition and brought the head of the Judenrat, Yossel Taub, to his
house. Yossel Taub lived in the house of Hirsch Lisha, behind the row of
houses in the Market Square.
Yod Aleph.
Along with the new police
directors of the forced labor camp, Immerglick ruled with cruelty, by means of
terror and threats upon those that remained. The searches for those in hiding
in the ghetto were not conducted only by the Germans or their Ukrainian
assistants, but also with the active participation of the Jewish members of the
Ordinungs Dienst, who uncovered a large number of Jews hiding in bunkers.
Those found were taken out to the Jewish cemetery and shot there.
Yod Beit.
Those who came to Bochnia
shared the same bitter fate of the Jews of Bochnia – most of them were
sent to Auschwitz to be murdered at the beginning of September 1943. Some of
them were sent to the Szewnia work camp near Jaslow, and from there, a few
Dembitz natives returned to Postikow as volunteers. The largest portion of the
workers of Szewnia, who were the remnants of the Jews of Galicia that were
brought there from Tarnow, Rzeszow, Bochnia, and Przemysl, were brought to
Auschwitz on November 29, 1943. They passed through the selection, and some of
them were sent to the various work camps in the area, and from there, further
on.
Yod Gimel
[3]
.
At the time of the ausziedlung,
the Nazis concentrated about 5,000 Jews in the designated square. These were
from Dembitz, Pilzno, Baranow, Tarnobrzeg-Dzikow, and greater and lesser
Radomysl. They were placed in groups of ten lines, with ten people in each
line, including women and children.
{Photo page 147 – A Dembitz native in the camp after the liberation.}
Translator's Footnotes :
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Dembitz, Poland
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