[Pages 645-646]

Chapter 10. “Work will save from Death”

Immediately after the deportation Aktion, the Germans carried out a roll-call of the Jewish workers. They issued new identity cards, and this time the workers received special cards and special ribbons, different from those “revoked.” Every working Jew received a registration-card (Meldekarte) with his photograph and very detailed personal description. The registration-card also bore a very typical warning, aimed to “protect” the Jews with the following message: “It is forbidden to abduct the card-bearer, within the town.” The workers' large, white ribbons were bore the letter “A” (Arbeiter; worker), with a personal, consecutive, number stitched on it. Every worker was also entitled to a special registration-card for one woman (his wife, mother or sister) who kept his household. These women, who supposedly were also under the protection of the Works Department, were given the letter “H” (Haushalt; household). Some 50,000 men and 25,000 women were given the revised registration-cards and the ribbons.

A new spirit filled the Jews after the roll-call. They clutched on to the ray of hope that the deceitful Germans conveyed. Again the Nazis managed to drive a wedge between the Jews who were “armed” with registration-cards and ribbons, and those without any protection, who faced death. The Jews believed that everyone with an “A” ribbon, and a registration-card was safe, and all the others tried to get work by any means. The Germans continued to issue cards and ribbons to every Jew accepted for work at an approved German enterprise

Removing the Dead

The new workplaces,

“The Valley of Death” where tens of thousands of Lwów's Jews were murdered

As late as January 1942, Dorfman, a German national (Volksdeutsche), arrived at Lwów to establish a tailoring and knitting workshop for the German air-force (Luftwaffe) and to employ Jewish workers. The German contractors and industrialists earned large sums by engaging very low paid Jewish workers. Dorfman set out to exploit this scheme. With that in mind, he negotiated with the German authorities, but did not receive a response until after the March 1941 Aktion. D. Greiwer, a Jewish merchant from Kraków who came to Lwów at that time, had already established “municipal workshops” at Bochnia [Salzberg] in western Galicia with great success. His workshops at Bochnia employed several hundreds of Jews, and he boasted that this saved them from deportation. When he arrived at Lwów, it seems that he acted in collaboration with Dorfman, and with several of Lwów's public-activists who sought the means to save thousands of unemployed Jews. The matter was discussed with the town's governor (Stadthauptmann), Dr. Heller, and his economic adjutant, Dr. Reisp, on the one hand, and with Greiwer and Dorfman, on the other. The public-activists were, the industrialist Tremski, the advocate Dr. Izydor Reisler^[1] (Known after the [2^nd World] War, under the name Jerzy Sawicki, and as Prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Poland, and as Prosecutor at the Criminal War Crimes Trials against the German perpetrators of Majdanek, Lublin and Nürnberg [Nuremberg]), and the young merchant, advocate Dawid Schechter. These three

[Pages 647-648]

were appointed managers of “the municipal workshops” that were established in April 1942, while Greiwer was the principal manager. This new institution was actively supported by Dr. Leib Landau, the leader of the “Jewish self-help,” and by Dr. Mehrer, well known for his involvement with Lwów's Jewish craftsmen's association. The founders of the workshops hoped that the industrial undertakings would save thousands of unemployed Jews, not only workers and craftsmen, but also those from among the Jewish intelligentsia. Small-industry departments, such as haberdashery, luxury items, baskets, brushes, book-binding, lingerie, millinery, paper boxes, small leather goods, etc., were opened at the “municipal workshops.” Most of these crafts were easily learnt, and were open to free professions such as advocates, the influential, teachers, merchants, etc. It was hoped that they would acquire these in a short time. They were also accepted for other work in the workshops, work that did not require “professional” preparation. Thus, the gatekeepers and night-watchmen of the workshops included the renowned pianist, Leopold Mincer, the advocate Dr. Julius Menkes, the journalist Dr. Adolf Friedman, and others.

Dr. Reisp, a Viennese advocate and theatre-man, appointed by the German town governance, was said to be an amenable and thoughtful person, but lacked economic experience. He promised one of the Jewish managers, that in case of deportation or other danger, the “municipal workshops” would be “an oasis of peace and calm” for their workers. The Jews rushed to this place of work and salvation, and soon 3,000 Jews found work and refuge there. The management of the workshops demanded that they bring their own machines and equipment to work, as the Germans only provided bare halls and rooms (at 17, 20-22 Kazimierzowska Street; and at 9 Furmańska Street). The labourers brought the last of their money, their remaining sewing machines, or other machines and even the furniture needed in the halls. But despite the enthusiasm and energy that the managers had invested in organising the undertaking, the workshops did not turn out to be the safe haven they had hoped.

The fundamental flaw lay in establishing the workshops in agreement with the civilian town governance (Dr. Heller and Dr. Reisp) and not with the army and the SS. The agreed upon plan had stipulated that all the workshops would supply civilian provisions for the Germans (tailoring, haberdashery etc.). Representatives from the armed forces, especially those of the SS (Dr. Wagner head of the economic department, [Ernst] Inquart, and General [Fritz, Friedrich] Katzmann), claimed that such production plants were irrelevant in wartime. Throughout Germany in 1942, the competition grew much tighter between the industries of the civil administration and those of the SS. The disputes between [Hugo] Schäffer, the German Reich's Minister of war provisions, and the SS, are well known, as was the dispute between [Ernst Otto Emil] Zörner, the governmental administrative commissioner of Lublin, and General Odilo [Lothar Ludwig] Globocnik, of the SS. Similar disputes undoubtedly took place at Lwów. However, the workshops were a bone of contention not just between the municipal governance and the SS, but rather, a state of permanent dispute existed between Greiwer and the Jewish Council and between Greiwer and Weber, head of the Labour office. Weber believed that Greiwer's actions took away Weber's own supervision over thousands of Jews. The Jewish Council had more fundamental arguments against Greiwer. Although very energetic, Greiwer was a vulgar and uneducated man, whose ego would not even endure the opinions of his close friends with regard to his governance. The Council said that he aspired to great wealth in a short time, irrespective of the means, and even in partnership with Dorfman. The Jewish Council had no say in the management of the “municipal workshops,” and the community members feared that the institution would eventually be in the hands of one man. Consequently, they planned to establish new workshops, under the guardianship and supervision of the Jewish Council.

The “municipal workshops” were also found ineffective and uneconomical. Most of the machines brought there, were not suited for actual production, and the abundance of untrained workers slowed down the production. The greatest obstacle, however, was the total lack of raw materials, which restricted large scale production. As a consequence, the workshops limited their manufacture to small haberdashery products and to the repair of shoes, tailored clothes, furs, etc., and all the management could do was to produce nice statistics and hold exhibitions to reassure the Germans.

Private German companies also began to show interest in Lwów's cheap Jewish labour, and established branches, there. The largest workshop was established by Schwartz, the Berlin firm, that included a large block of houses on [St.; św] Marcina Street (Nos. 3, 5, 7, 9, 11). Some 3,000 Jews worked there, in three shifts. One of the prime “productions” of this establishment was the repair and adaptation of clothes sent there by the SS from all of eastern Galicia. The clothes had belonged to Jews who were murdered by the Germans during the Mordaktion [murder Aktion]. The restored, cleansed and repaired suits were later sent to German charities in Germany, especially to WHW, Winterhilfswerk (Winter Relief Organisation).

[Pages 649-650]

The work at the “acquisition of raw materials” enterprise of Victor Kremin, was hard and depressing. The labourers there roamed the streets like pedlars, gathering rags and trash from rubbish heaps. Other shifts of labourers cleaned and repaired the collected material. In addition, torn and worn military uniforms from the front, covered in lice, contaminated with blood and pus, arrived there to be cleaned and repaired. Worst of all was to work with clothes of the Jews murdered in Aktionen.

Not only did these private companies profit handsomely from the Jewish labour, which they had for next to nothing, or free of charge, but they also charged the Jews entry fee that generally amounted to thousands of Polish Gulden. Mediators, Jews and non-Jews, arranged such workplaces and extorted large sums brokerage fees.

The Jews soon realised that even the protection of work for German institutions was a false hope, and that they were living under the sword of Damocles.

[Pages 651-652]

Chapter 11. The Imminent Disaster

This laborious “prosperity” was suddenly shattered, shocking the Jews of Lwów, with a new Aktion, known by the Germans as Blitzkrieg [flash war]. In the middle of summer, on a Wednesday, probably 24^th June or 8^th July 1942, an SS brigade designated to murder (a brigade termed by the Jews Realkommando, or Vernichtungskommando [extermination squad]), burst into the town and carried out a sudden and brutal Aktion, lasting only twelve hours, from 2pm till 2am. The Aktion was organised by two of Lwów's SS Officers, [Erich] Engels, [Friedrich] Katzmann's deputy and one of Lwów's Gestapo leaders, and his deputy, [Carl] Wöbke. The soldiers burst into Jewish houses and removed the “unemployed,” that is to say, the elderly, women and children. The victims (numbered between 6,000 and 8,000), were taken to a transit camp (Durchgangslager, “Dulag”), near the Janowska camp, where they were murdered in terrible torture. There were rumours that among the grotesque deaths, common during that dreadful slaughter, the Germans used trained hounds to attack the victims and devour them alive. The new Aktion left deep marks on the Jews of Lwów.

Several other small Aktionen took place during the summer. One night, all the Jewish veterinarian surgeons were removed from their houses and led to Janowska camp, where most of them died shortly after. On another occasion, the Germans seized all the Jews who worked for insurance companies (the Assurance agents) before the war had, and led them away somewhere. Once, an inspection parade of the Jewish police was held and about 200-250 policemen were moved to Janowska camp to serve as camp policemen. Their end, like that of all the camp's dwellers was murder.

In July 1942, another penalty (Kontribution) payment was demanded from the Jews. It was the third payment of this kind. As early as April 1942, the Germans declared that the second Kontribution did not turn out well. The third Kontribution did not bring them much money either. After the murder of tens of thousands of Jews, the remaining thinned out and impoverished slaughter-fodder, could not provide the desired extortion. The few optimists amongst the Jews still believed that that Kontribution was an indication that the Germans had changed their mind and that the ransom would serve in lieu of blood. They were wrong again.

After the total annihilation of the Jewish population had been decided upon at the meeting of the central German authorities in Berlin (2^nd January 1942), fundamental changes took place within the administration. Earlier, the Jews were subject to two authorities, and two separate offices dealt with every issue. There were the civil administration (the Governor, the mayor, etc.) and the armed forces, and then there were the SS and the Gestapo which was part of the SS. At the hight of summer 1942, all issues relating to Jews passed to the SS. It was a victory for the fanatic Nazis over those considered “moderate” economic circles, who preferred to delay the extermination of the Jews until after the war. The objection of the economic and military circles, to the annihilation, was not grounded in humanitarian welfare but in sheer profitability. High officials of the civil administration (such as [Wilhelm] Kube, Governor of White Ruthenia, and Prof. [Peter-Heinz] Seraphim a specialist in the economy and population of Poland and Ukraine) and German generals, sent protest letters to the central German authorities, warning of the dangers of annihilating the Jews “prematurely.” The German civil administration of Lwów also voiced its opinion on the subject in an official report dated 29^th August 1942 (this document is available at the Archives of the Institute for Jewish Research, YIVO, New York). The representative of Lwów's German administration stated:

“The workforce in the district of Galicia is stretched to the limit, on top of which the removal of the Jewish work-force from the labour market was done in a most radical way. Galicia's administration only had one year to plan for the elimination of the Jewish labour force. The Aryan population of Galicia is much less agile in crafts and industry, than in other districts. Consequently, the war economy will also suffer much more than in other parts of the Generalgouvernement.

“It seems that the fundamental question regarding the annihilation of the Jews, was either the priority of the political reasons or those of the war-needs. The question was decided by the supreme government in favour of the political momentum, while accepting the fact that the economic production in these areas would drastically decline. I have to stress in particular that this policy will lead to very difficult results in the district of Galicia.”

[Pages 653-654]

General [Fritz] Katzmann, on the other hand, made a victorious declaration in his report delivered to the head of Kraków's secret police, and the SS:

“The (civil) administration did not gather strength and was too weak to control the chaos in this area (forced Jewish labour). Consequently, the head of the secret police and the SS (General Katzmann) took over the entire operation of Jewish labour. All the Jewish labour offices (of Galicia district), where hundreds of Jews had worked, were dismantled. All the work-certificates that had been given to the Jews by different companies and offices were revoked. All the work-cards which the work departments had issued to the Jews were invalidated if not renewed by a new stamp of the Gestapo. During this inspection roll-call, thousands of Jews with false identity-cards, or who had obtained work-certificates by deceit or under other pretexts, were abducted. All of them were handed over for “special treatment” (Sonderbehandlung – for killing)”.

Katzmann's report describes precisely what happened in Lwów and the entire district of Galicia. Lwów's Jewish labour office was liquidated in August 1942. In the farewell speech to his sacked Jewish clerks, Heinz Weber advised them how to survive in the future: “It will be better for you to be rags (labourers “collecting raw materials”) than bookkeepers and clerks.” In conversation with the Jewish Council's representative, Weber also let slip: “Henceforth, issues concerning the Jews will not be settled on the basis of economy, but on that of politics.”

The new SS masters immediately initiated an inspection of the Jewish workplaces. In each one, a “patrol” examined the location and dismissed Jewish workers. The dismissed workers were not sent home, they were arrested by the SS. The sick men and women were sent to “Schmelzen” (to smelt used iron – that is to say, killing), and the stronger ones were sent to Janowska camp. The work-cards of the survivors were marked by a new stamp during the inspection, but even they realised that it was only a temporary rescue, and that no safety lay in the new work-cards and the “A” ribbons. Katzmann was said to regularly express his disdain for the sham “protection” with these cynical words: “The ribbon imparts no shame whatsoever, the ribbon is a “death” sentence.

Katzmann's aids in the “Jewish employment” department were SS officers: Hildebrandt, for the district of Galicia, and Lenart, for the town of Lwów.

As in all other production factories, an inspection roll-call was also held in the “municipal workshops,” only here, those who “deserved to be saved,” had their card stamped by the SS in purple (red), rather than the black stamp given in other institutions. No one paid attention to this slight detail which seemed like a minor error. It was only during the Grossaktion [big action] of August 1942, that the disaster of that “error” came to light.

The situation of the 5,000 Jewish Council's clerks was quite unique. The SS refused to stamp their work-cards. This did not bode well for them.

[Pages 655-656]

Chapter 12. The Grossaktion of August 1942

The Aktion started at dawn, on Monday, 10^th August 1942. It was the biggest murder action that the Germans committed in Lwów. It was systematically planned in advance by military and political experts. The Aktion, overseen by [Friedrich] Katzmann, was carried out by a battalion made up of the SS, the Gestapo and the German and Ukrainian secret police specialised in the extermination of human beings (Vernichtung Komando) [death squad]. According to German army officers, Katzmann deferred the operation several times. For every delay he received a bribe of half a million Gulden from the Jews. At the start of this Aktion, Katzmann remarked to Greiner, a German army officer: “Katyn? How does it apply to our operation (in Lwów)! Katyn was just a one day's job, in comparison.” (evidence of Alfred Greiner, a German soldier from Munich). The Aktion was executed by the Germans and the Ukrainians with great precision, sanguinity and satisfaction. They blockaded specific houses, streets and neighbourhoods, one after the other, and conducted methodical searchers. After all the residents had been removed from their homes, they conducted a second inspection, and later a final inspection which they termed “fine combing” (auskämmen). They removed several thousand victims to Janowska camp, daily, as a result of this meticulous detections.

The Jews were unprepared for the Aktion that caught them unawares. Only a few protested. The Jews sought endless hiding places in cellars, tunnels and ditches, but they were mostly unsuccessful. The hiding places that were hurriedly prepared at the last minute were easily uncovered, especially with the aid of detection hounds. The Gentile children frequently divulged the hiding places to the police. The number of suicides increased, as did personal resistance and attempts to evade transport. Hundreds of such “criminals” were immediately shot by the police.

In general the Germans took the work-certificates marked during the previous inspection with the SS stamp into consideration. However, they showed exceptional cruelty towards the “municipal workshops,” the old bone of contention between the

“The Killings Valley” - beside the gravestones

The Aktion at the hospitals and orphanages was also terrible and cruel. The Germans removed not only the sick, but also the physicians and all the sanitary staff. Unable to move from their beds, the sick were shot on the spot. The children were thrown into the wagons like sacks, with one on top of the other.

All the victims were brought to Janowska camp where they were made to stand for hours in a large courtyard, and ordered to wait for another inspection. Meanwhile, the policemen beat them to death, and examined

[Pages 657-658]

their clothes and bodies, in search for silver, gold, precious stones, foreign coins, etc. A very small number of those imprisoned were released after the additional inspection. The Grossaktion ended on 23^rd August 1942, during which over 50,000 people were murdered.

During the first days of the Aktion, the Germans still attempted to give it a “cultural” appearance. Such an appearance could not be maintained about such an undertaking of murder and killing. Soon Lwów turned into a nightmarish, bloody town. Things had gone so far that even the German civil administration, which generally concurred with the SS about the “final goal” regarding the Jews, objected to the execution of that “goal.” In a report of 16^th October 1942, a representative of the civil administration wrote:

“The transferral of the Jews (Umsiedlung) is an operation which at times appears incompatible with a cultured nation, so much so that they bring to mind a comparison between the methods of the Gestapo and those of the GPU [Soviet State security service]. It is said that the carriages used in these transportations are so dilapidated that it is impossible to stop the Jews who want to escape from the transport, from doing so. Consequently, from time to time at the railway stations en route, wild firing is heard and human hunt… Although the German and the other non-Jewish population is convinced of the need to annihilate the Jews, it would nevertheless be worthwhile for such acts of annihilation to be executed in a way that would not cause so much confusion and discontent.” (from the Archives of YIVO, New York).

Order of Lwów's town Kommandant of 8th July 1941 regarding the Star of David badges for Jews

[Pages 659-660]

Governor of Galicia's announcement about the Lwów's Jewish Ghetto

[Pages 661-662]

Chapter 13. Establishment of Lwów's Ghetto

After the Aktion of August 1942, the establishment of the ghetto was announced. This announcement was not made by the civil administration which no longer had any control over the Jews. Instead, it was signed by the SS commander General [Fritz] Katzmann. The end date for the establishment of the ghetto was set for 7^th September 1942. The fate of any Jew found outside the ghetto after that date, was death. This fate would also befall any Christian who sheltered a Jew outside the ghetto walls.

The establishment of the ghetto constituted another of General Katzmann's victories over the German civil administration regarding the Jews. In a report to the chief of police of the “General Government [Generalgouvernement],” Katzmann blamed the civil administration for lacking the required talent and mettle to “resolve the question of the Jews,” and presented the reasons that led him to establish the ghetto. Even in this SS internal report, Katzmann produced false excuses and phantasies for establishing the ghetto, or in his words:

“Over time it gradually became clear that the civil administration does not possess the ability to solve the Jewish question, not even partially and unsatisfactorily. The civil administration tried, for example, to limit the number of Jews in an enclosed Jewish district, but unsuccessfully. The issue was therefore resolved by the commandeer of the secret police and the SS (i.e. Katzmann himself) and his officers, without hesitation. The order could not bear any delay because during the winter of 1941 several typhus cases were recorded in different parts of the town of Lwów. The situation was not only very dangerous to the local population, but moreover to the army, whether stationed at Lwów or passing through on the way to the front. During the transfer of the Jews from the town to the ghetto, several gates (Schleusen) were created for the purpose of finely sifting out all the antisocial and work-shy Jewish mob. All such elements were caught and taken for “special treatment” (Sonderbehandlung, that is to say, slaughter).”

Katzmann's words reveal that during the transfer from the town to the ghetto, the German secret police planned a new means of “purification” of the Jews, which they then carried out. Many Jews were murdered during the new examination, in addition to the many who fell victim to the different wild Aktionen, the cruellest of which took place in early September (probably 1^st September 1942), within the new ghetto area.

After the order to establish the ghetto was issued, the offices of the Jewish community moved from Starotandetna Street (which remained outside the ghetto, in accordance with the new order), to the building at the corner of 15 Jakóba Hermana Street and 2 Łokieteka Street. Both the main office of the Jewish Council [Judenrat] and the housing office were moved there. Groups of fear stricken and homeless Jews huddled around the housing office, begging to be given a corner somewhere in the new ghetto. Suddenly, tens of hobnailed soldiers of the SS and Gestapo emerged out of their cars, tore into the people and rioted. According to

rumours that spread around town, it was a “retaliation Aktion” [Verwaltungsaktion] for an incident in the town the previous day. A Jew tried to defend himself against a German clerk, during which the German was wounded and died. At the time, the leader of the Jewish Council was not in the community building, because he had been imprisoned in the jail on Łącki [Lantzki] Street, a few days earlier. It was said in town that Dr. Landesberg was jailed because he had conducted secret negotiations with the Polish underground organisations, and that he was accused of financially supporting these organisations. The German officer who managed the Aktion (eyewitnesses provided different names for the officer. Some said Engels, others gave the name Wöbke or Gustav Willhaus), sent a special car to bring Dr. Landesberg to the slaughtering area in the Jewish Council building. Meanwhile, the Germans managed to abduct and shoot tens of men and women in the crowd, fleeing in panic. The murdered corpses were piled into a big mound, opposite the Jewish Council building. After that deed, the Germans continued with the second act of their nightmare. They picked twelve Jewish clerks and policemen in order to publicly execute them, hanging from balconies and lamp posts. As the Germans did not have ropes, they sent for strong new ropes from the town. (The Germans later sent the receipt for the ropes to the Jewish Council, with the demand that the community reimburse the cost of the purchase. Dr. Jaffe, head of the housing office, retained the original voucher). Notwithstanding, the ropes

[Pages 663-664]

that tied several of the wretched victims, unravelled. They fell off the balconies onto the pavement below and were injured. Still, the Germans beat them, and forced those injured and bleeding to climb back to the house, where they were tied up a second time. Among those murdered were the Jewish-Polish writer, Ludwik Roth, the physician Dr. Taffet and Dr. Tunis, the community's director of the department for assistance to the Jews in the camps. Dr. Tunis, who had been an Austrian army officer, was “pardoned” from a public execution. His fate was changed to the honourable death by shooting. The rest of the victims were hung from the first floor balconies, and the street lamp posts. The Germans organised a special spectacle of ridicule for Dr. Landesberg. The Germans decided that in recognition of his status as the leader of the Jewish Council, his condemnation had to be greater than that of his clerks. His death was to be from the second floor.

Dr. Landesberg was first hanged by very thin ropes that broke immediately and he fell to the ground. Then the Germans took him back to the second floor, and the spectacle was repeated three times. Shocked, wounded and bleeding, his courage gone, Dr. Landesberg begged for mercy from his executioners. He based his plea on the legal custom that a convicted person is pardoned from the death sentence if his life was not extinguished during the execution. The Germans disregarded his request and hanged him.

The Mayor's Notice regarding the Appointment of a Jewish Council at Lwów

[Pages 665-666]

After this event, the Germans ordered that the hanged bodies should remain on display for a day (or, two days, according to other eyewitnesses), for the Germans and the local population to see.

One of the ghetto survivors recounts the atrocity as follows:

“I went with my mother to the community about accommodation. On the balcony above, the hanged bodies swayed in the light wind, their faces turning blue. Faces of horror, their heads hung backwards and their tongues out stretched and black. Impressive cars raced from the centre of town as German citizens with their wives and children, came to view the spectacle. As usual, even here the visitors enthusiastically photographed the view. Others arrived more modestly, by tram, Ukrainians and Poles…”.

Notes:

All notes in square brackets [ ] were made by the translator.
Notes framed in the brackets { } contain comments provided by the author.
The spelling of most individuals' names were taken from a local directory of Lwów from 1935/6.

Translator's note:

1. The son-in-law of Dr. Leib Landau. Return

[Pages 667-667]

Chapter 14. The Organisation and Inner Life in the Ghetto

The size of the ghetto established in accordance with [Fritz] Katzmann's order, was considerably smaller than the area which the urban administration had allocated for it, the previous year. Indeed, due to continuous murder, there were at least 70,000 fewer Jews. The new ghetto encompassed part of Kleparów and Zamarstynów suburbs (excluding that of Zniesienie). Due south, the natural boundary of the ghetto was formed by the railway tracks. To the west, from the bridge under the railway tracks up to the house number 105, lay Zamarstynowska Street. The Poltva [Peltew] River flowed on the north side, and the border to the east was delineated by Tetmajera and Warszawska Streets. Even for the one-third, remaining Jewish population after the Aktionen and the deportations, the area of the ghetto with its diminutive clay and wooden houses, was too small to contain them all. A large building as a rare sight in these parts. Unfortunately, the newcomers had to find accommodation among the densely packed dwellings within a fortnight between the proclamation order and the closure of the ghetto. The Jewish Council, and especially its housing department, tasked with this arduous undertaking, were put into a state of turmoil and confusion due to the Grossaktion [big action] and the calamity of 1^st September 1942.

The public and the family life, the customs of every Jewish home, were wrecked and broken, with not a single family remaining intact after the devastation. The uprooting from the previous home to relocate in the ghetto, the accessibility, the checks and persecution foreseen on the way, resembled a new form of Aktion, at the end of which Jewish families found no shelter for themselves. They camped for many weeks in the streets or in gardens behind the houses, in corridors in stables and in a variety of sheds. It was late autumn, and the approaching cold and the heavy rains affected their health and greatly damaged their meagre possessions and food. The sole open space in the ghetto, Kleparów square, was full of those “who left Egypt,” parked in tents, sheds, or under the open sky, bereft and destitute. In their desire to aggravate even that kind of life of the Jews, the Germans had not made the necessary preparations for the Aryan families to leave the ghetto before the arrival of the Jews. It was only after the Jews had arrived in the ghetto that the Aryan residents began to leave, whether to swap their meagre lair for a spacious Jewish apartment in town (for these exchanges the Jews were obliged to pay a large ransom), or, in order to leave the Jewish area to avoid being inflicted with the suffering of the Jews. A few months later, most of the Gentile families had left the ghetto, thereby allowing the Jews more space. The overcrowding was also reduced as a result of the large number of deaths among the Jews, in part from diseases and in part as victims of the incessant Adktionen. Nevertheless, the space was inadequate. Legally, every Jew was entitled to living quarters of three meters square, but such “luxury accommodation” was only theoretical. In practice, every small room with a hatch, was occupied by at least ten people, that is to say, by two, three and even four families. As there were not enough sleeping places for all, at one time, different schemes were contrived. Some opted for sleeping in two shifts, one group during the daytime and one at night (especially where day-workers and night-workers occupied the same living space). There were those who divided the sleeping time into three shifts. Others constructed ledges on two levels, and one had to climb onto these wooden tiers at night for a short sleep. The beds were of course only made for sleeping. During the daytime they had to be removed outside, in order to be able to move in the room, sweep and prepare food. A ghetto resident described the way of living as follows:

“There were very few houses in the normal sense. On the whole there were ruins, disintegrating shacks that were ready for demolition even before the outbreak of war. The ruins had previously been occupied by the lower strata of all types. Such a ruin deserves to be described: Its tiny hatches, mostly without panes, are patched and sealed with rags, sheets of paper, filthy cushions and as a measure of luxury also plywood and boards. The external walls are a grey-brown stained in rough slime and mud splashed by the wheels of wagons that slowly wove their way through the putrid puddles with their standing slush through summer and winter. All the walls are just covered in green… the north facing walls are rotten and damp up to the roof slopes. The roof is covered in shingles and the gutters are rotten and disintegrating… The passage (to the house) paved in wood planks, forms a minefield… for the feet of a stranger who might break bones and fall on his face… An apartment with “amenities” has a broken tap with a decomposing sink… hard to be taken as a tap for drinking water. The rooms… not whitewashed and not tidied, the walls and the floors are in disrepair, and in every room and dark corner, a mud stove and a rusting, sooty pipe to the chimney.”^[8]

[Pages 669-670]

Metropolitan Andrey Szeptycki [Sheptytsky]

Letter of the Metropolitan Szeptycki to the community elders (in Hebrew) 1903

[Pages 671-672]

and present work-cards. The secret police thoroughly checked the workers to ensure they did not take anything with them on their way out, nor smuggle any food into the ghetto.

Generally, the food supply for the Jewish population worsened from the moment the ghetto was created. Commercial contact and negotiation with the Christians and with the black-market was suspended. The Jewish and Christian mediators who smuggled goods into the ghetto under mortal danger, demanded exorbitant prices, at times 300%-400% of the prices on the Aryan black market. The official amount of food supplied to Jews was nominal, and its quality was well below standard. The main meal of a person in the ghetto (the main meal was at noon or evening, depending on the work schedule of the family members), was extremely limited, consisting of soup made of beans, potatoes or coarse groats, turnip and bread. Coffee was replaced by water of roasted beetroot, with saccharin in stead of sugar. Vegetable dishes were prepared from bramble and weeds, or potato peels and leftovers. The basic food was bread, and its quality was very poor:

“Externally, this loaf resembles bread, but the dough inside was a secret. It might have contained some flour, but its grey-brown-black colour resembled external mortar. That “something,” always tacky always moist, that never dried, was a delicacy for us, despite its repellent appearance and its vile taste. And no one should think that this show-bread was brought to the ghetto on a regular basis. On the contrary. A fortune had to be paid for such a smuggled item (30 Gulden for a 1 kg. loaf).”

Different ailments spread through the ghetto. The fight against any disease was very difficult. There were no hospitals except for a small, temporary medical clinic (all the Jewish medical clinics and hospitals were liquidated during the Grossaktion of August 1942) nor were there pharmacy. All medicine had to be smuggled in from the Aryan side at inflated prices.

“The typhus epidemic spread and grew, unstoppably. A physician friend of mine who lived in the room with me, told me that he daily counted twenty-five cases of infection. At the time there were still scores of physicians in the ghetto, all of whom were inundated with work. The ghetto inhabitants tried to protect themselves as best they could. They removed their clothes and tried to regularly have a thorough wash despite the terrible overcrowding. There was no bathhouse in the ghetto, and the one outside the ghetto was purely for the militia and could only fit 100 bathers a day.”^[9]

As an additional problem, it was dangerous to fall ill in the ghetto. Anyone found ill immediately became a victim whom the Germans dispatched for “special treatment” [Spezialbehandlung]. As a consequence, the sick walked around with 39°-40°, in the freezing winter, and pretended to be well. At work they stood, as usual. On their return they had injections, self-administered or by an acquaintance, usually in the toilet so as not to be seen by anyone. The will to live and to overcome all tribulations was so great, that some of those who were wretchedly sick succeeded in recuperating, at least superficially.

[Pages 673-674]

Chapter 15. New Aktionen in the Ghetto

On 18^th November 1942, the Germans carried out a new roll-call in the ghetto. This time, all the factory workers and those working in the military institutions were given a tin tag that carried the letter “W” (Wehrmacht = armed forces) or the letter “R” (Rüstungsindustrie = armaments industry), to workers of the munitions factories. About 12,000 men and women received the new tags. The roll-call gave the Germans an opportunity for another “purge,” and around 5,000 “unnecessary persons” were murdered. Those surviving the “purge” fell into two categories. Those with the signs “W” or “R,” were given the best living accommodations in the ghetto, in stone houses that were turned into barracks, with a sign on each barrack indicating the residents' company and the institution in which they worked, etc. Those with no tags were deemed unnecessary, and were victimised. The cabins and clay shacks were their dwellings and their entire lives became illegal. Every time the Germans searched the ghetto they murdered many of them. The biggest Grossaktion took place on 5, 6, 7 January 1943, when around 15,000 people were murdered. This time the Germans also caused havoc among the clerks of the Jewish Council. Before the Aktion, an order was issued calling on all the Council members to assemble at the community hall. Once they had gathered, the Germans burst in and removed the clerks, and took them to Bełżec death camp, or to Janowska camp. A short while after that (probably on 4^th February 1943), the Germans ordered the members of the Jewish Council (there were still 12 people on the board), to appear for a roll-call. Some of them showed up the others hid. Some of those who did show up, were murdered, including the head of the Jewish Council, Dr. Obersohn and his friends Dr. Marceli Buber, Dr. Kimmelman, Chiger and others. Others were sent to Janowska camp, including Szymon Ulam who was later transferred to Dachau camp, where he perished. Those who managed to hide, were almost all later found and murdered by the Germans. Two board members, Dr. Scherzer and Dr. Leib Landau, hid in Aryan neighbourhoods, and their hiding places were uncovered by the Germans (their Aryan neighbours probably informed on them). The Germans took them to the Jewish jail in the ghetto, where they were murdered. The physician and board member, Dr. Ginsberg, evaded the murderers, and for a time he masqueraded as a Christian, substantiated by false Aryan documents. Later, after the ghetto was emptied of its Jewish residents due to the incessant Aktionen, he hid there in caves and among the ruins. Hundreds of men and women hid among those ruins, in those days. As the Germans had condemned them as unemployed, aged, orphaned, homeless and unprotected, they existed in a permanent state of mortal danger. Although the ruins were empty and exposed, still, they encountered Ukrainian detectives or ordinary thieves and extortionists looking for hidden Jews, for valuables left after the massacre, and for the imaginary extreme wealth which according to urban myths had been buried by Jews before their deaths, in basements and in the ground. When the searchers found living Jews –“rats”– hiding among the ruins, they threatened them. To buy their secrecy, they extorted the Jews' remaining possessions. Notwithstanding, on occasion they turned the Jews over to the secret police even after been paid. Such a life grew too much for Dr. Ginsberg, and he committed suicide. Presumably, a large number of suicides were committed under such persecution.

During the Aktionen of winter 1942-1943, the Germans employed new “war tactics,” to stop Jews from attempting to escape as they had done in the earlier Aktionen. Consequently, the Germans removed the clothes from all those they transported, driving them, naked and possessionless to the place of murder. At times the wagons and train carriages (goods wagons) were open, and even in the depths winter the Germans did not alter their tactics. The transports were always closely guarded by German or Ukrainian policemen armed with automatic rifles and assisted by sniffer dogs trained to hunt human-beings. The wagons were closed and bolted (the open carriages were surrounded by barbed wire) and the Jews were not allowed to alight at the stations, even to use the toilet. Despite all the guarding measures, many still escaped. Some managed to break the small openings, some pierced the floor of the wagon and jumped through those during the voyage, and ran. Many of those who jumped, died as they fell, or were murdered by police guns or the hounds' teeth. Many succumbed to the cold and starvation as they roamed naked in the fields and forests. Many of

[Pages 675-676]

those who jumped fell into the hands of the secret police. Very few managed to escape with their lives, and acquire food and some clothes from the farmers who took pity on them. They could return to Lwów. However, not many famers showed any pity for the Jews. The “leapers” (die Springer) turned into a household name among the Jewish public. There were experienced experts who had jumped three or four times, and they were noted for being “exemplary people.” In general, anyone who had survived a jumping episode was no longer an ordinary person. It was difficult for the “leapers” to adjust to the “ordinary” life of the ghetto. They did not have work certificates, places to live or clothes and personal possessions. Most of them encamped in the hall of the Jewish Council, or in the streets. At the following inspection or Aktion they were again sent on the death-transport [Todestransport].

From every examination and search through the ghetto jail, the detectives gathered those destined for the death-transports, until they had reached the number required for a transport. To begin with, the jail was at 25 Wierzbiekiego Street in the Kleparów suburb, but after part of the suburb had almost been emptied of people due to the fires and the frequent Aktionen, the jail was relocated to 15 Weyssenhofa Street. There was a weekly “clearing” of the jail, and the prisoners were taken to the extermination area in the “Sands” [piaski in Polish] near the cemetery on Janowska Street, or to Lesienice [Lysynychi] Forest. The expression “He was taken to the Sands,” meant that he was murdered.

[Pages 677-678]

Chapter 16. The Ghetto is made a Julag

At the beginning of 1943, the regulations of the ghetto underwent far-reaching changes. By order of Minister Heinrich [Luitpold] Himmler, leader of the Protection Squadron [Schutzstaffel] and the SS, the Germans intended to turn the remaining ghettos into labour-camps during 1943. Such an order was issued, for example, to the German Command in Warsaw, in spring of 1943, at Litzmannstadt-Łódź [ghetto], in September 1943, and so on. The change in Lwów took place early, after the Aktion of January 1943. At that point, the Jewish area was renamed, from ghetto to Judenlager [Jewish camp], abbreviated as Julag. The way of life at the Julag was different from that in the ghetto. The Germans instituted a strict military discipline. A large part of the old ghetto was liquidated, and all the working Jews were moved to barracks. Other streets, including Żródlana Street and the Kleparów suburb, were placed outside the ghetto parameters. The Jewish Council was totally eliminated (Feil was the last leader of the Council, who had little influence over Jewish public life), and it was not replaced by a single institution that officially represented all the Jews of the ghetto. From now on the Germans assigned so called “Jewish elders” for every work-company, a post which naturally bore no self-governing authority. The Jewish workers were forbidden from leaving the ghetto individually. Only groups could cross the gate at set times on the way to work and back again. The rest of the Jews who did not work, including the workers' families, their parents, wives and children, were a source of plunder for the Germans. The Nazis held the view that the lives of these “unemployed” were superfluous and wanton. A Jew who did not work for the German industry had no right to exist, and inspections were regularly undertaken to catch the “illegal” Jews of whom a few thousands still existed until the Germans managed to reduce the Julag residents to 12,000 “legal” workers. And yet, after the Aktionen, thousands of “illegals” were still alive until the liquidation of the ghetto.

The SS headquarters also underwent changes. General Katzmann left Lwów at the beginning of 1943. He was superseded by General Jürgen [Josef] Stroop, whom the Germans considered a great expert in the annihilation Aktionen. Stroop remained in Lwów for one year, until April 1943, when he was called to Warsaw to organise the war against the ghetto uprisers. SS commanders were appointed leaders of the Julag, the first among them was SS Officer Mansfeld, and his deputy Siller. He was followed by the SS Officer (SS-Hauptscharführer) Józef Grzymek, and his deputy Heinisch. Grzymek, who took up his position on 19^th February 1943, was the cruelest of them all. Even before his arrival in Lwów he excelled as an officer at Jaktorów, the labour-camp for Jews [Judenlager] (in east Galicia). It was he who liquidated the camp after murdering all its Jewish prisoners. Later, he managed the Rawa Rusca ghetto. Also this ghetto, which he considered “an exemplar ghetto” because of the iron discipline and the slave labour practised there, was liquidated by himself. Grzymek tortured the Jews in the Julag of Lwów, tyrannising them with practical jokes, accessibility, persecution and severe torment, and with his excessive demands for discipline and cleanliness. Demands that bordered on insanity.

“Grzymek undertook the purification of the ghetto,” one of the Julag inhabitants recounts. “The streets were crammed with litter. The houses were vile and filthy even before the arrival of the Jews. Heaps of waste in every courtyard and corner, and all the houses were like ruins. Grzymek's madness was unstoppable, however. He ordered 24 denouncing placards bearing the slogan “Order must be kept!” (“Ordnung muss sein”), to be set in the form of a crescent, and also boards with the saying on the virtue of hygiene: “If your house is clean you will be a healthy person!”

“He particularly harassed the 'cleaners' (Jewish women in charge of the ghetto's cleanliness), and checked their work on a daily basis. He attacked them with cruel anger for the slightest bit of untidiness, and ordered them to hang his boards in the barracks and in all the houses… He wore white gloves as he checked for dust, the holes and cracks. He tortured the gatekeepers to death, if they were unable to repair a broken plumbing, or a blocked sewer. Any gatekeeper considered negligent, received 25 lashings from the whip in Grzymek's hand.[”]^[10]

[Pages 679-680]

Grzymek passed through the entire ghetto in a horse-drawn wagon every morning, for a first inspection. The wagon rushed by and a group of Jewish policemen ran behind at his command. He kept a close watch on the cleanliness in the streets and the houses. When he noticed the slightest spec of dirt on one of the windowpanes, he immediately smashed it to pieces. He entered the houses for inspection, and if he disapproved of anything, he caused a scandal in the house, broke dishes and furniture, spilt and threw out the food. When he found “illegal” individuals wandering in the house, or Jewish workers absent from their work for any reason (ailment, day of rest at the factory where they worked, etc.), he ordered the policemen to put them in jail. He murdered hundreds of Jews in this manner. In addition, Grzymek carried out Grossaktionen. In one such Aktion on 17^th March 1943, around 1,500 people were murdered. In another Aktion, 800 individuals were sent to the extermination-camp Auschwitz [Oswięcim].

Grzymek set up a Jewish orchestra that was ordered to play daily, at the entrance to the Julag, when the work-companies left for the town. By order of the Germans, the orchestra played dance music, marches (the famous march named after Radetzky, Radetzky Marsch) and classical tunes by Mozart or Beethoven (the German soldier Alfred Greiner recalls, for example, hearing this orchestra play Beethoven's Third Symphony, at the gate of the ghetto).

Grzymek remained commander of Lwów's ghetto until the Julag was liquidated. After that he was sent to command the Szebnie camp near Jasło in west Galicia, where he also made a name for himself for his cruelty and horrific acts of sadism. Grzymek was caught after the war, and was put on pubic trial in Warsaw, in April 1949. The court sentenced him to death.

[Pages 681-682]

Chapter 17. Statistics of the Crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against Lwów's Jews

The changes in the numbers of Lwów's Jewish population will provide an astonishing description of the Germans' rate of murder. The numbers presented here were given to the author immediately after the liberation of Lwów in August 1944, by Dr. Weiser. Dr. Weiser had been the director of the department for food-cards in the Jewish Council of Lwów, and he still had notes which included the pertinent numbers. These numbers are of course not precise. An office card-index, and food-cards, did not accurately reflect the population numbers for several reasons. On the one hand the number of the population was smaller than that of the listed cards, as many families did not report their dead and murdered, in order to keep the additional food-rations as starvation gripped the Jewish neighbourhood. Many families also believed that their sons, who were taken for “work” or to the camp, would return and therefore kept them on the register. On the other hand, a large number of “illegals,” refugees, “criminals,” political activists and even ordinary Jews, chose to forgo the substandard food portion because they felt safer when their name was not listed in the open card-index of the Germans. Anyone who planned to hide or to pose as a Christian with the use of fake Aryan documents, were not registered. It is difficult to ascertain what percentage needs be added to the number on the register, and what percentage subtracted, but one can surmise that the numbers were closely balanced, and that subsequently the registered numbers closely reflect the truth. The reported numbers were as follows:

In June 1941, according to estimates by the community and by General [Fritz] Katzmann (see Pt. IV; Chapter 1), there were between 150,000 and 160,000 Jews in Lwów. Those who registered for food-cards, in subsequent months, numbered as follows:

October 1941	119,000 Jews
November	109,000 Jews
December	106,000 Jews
January 1942	103,000 Jews
February	97,000 Jews
March	96,000 Jews
April	86,000 Jews
May	84,000 Jews
June	82,000 Jews
July	82,000 Jews
August	76,000 Jews
September	36,000 Jews
October	33,000 Jews
November	29,000 Jews
December	24,000 Jews

We do not have official data from this date onwards, since the institutions of the Jewish Council were liquidated at the end of January 1943.

[Pages 683-684]

Chapter 18. Spiritual Life in the Ghetto, the Fate of Writers, Scholars and Artists

It is too early to form a true picture of the cultural life in the ghetto, especially since any cultural life had to be “invisible” and because it operated underground for fear of the Germans' prohibitions and harsh persecutions. The Germans considered even taking part in a private Minyan, a grave sin that cost the life of anyone caught (see Pt. IV; Chapter 4). Whereas in some towns, such as Warsaw, Wilno [Vilna; Vilnius], Łódż, and to some extent also at Częstochowa [Chenstochova], Będzin [Bendzin], Sosnowiec [Sosnowitz], Kraków and others, cultural life could develop, Jewish schools, synagogues and Torah-study functioned, it was possible to hold talks and concerts and establish theatres, youth sports associations and even to produce periodicals (such as Vilner Geto-Yediyes, Litzmannnstadt Getto Zeitung, Gazeta Zydowska, in Kraków), the Jews of Lwów were prevented from all overt cultural activities. Immediately after the arrival of the Germans, Jewish public activists convened a meeting of all leaders from the different factions and parties, to discuss the establishment of schools, and the 20 participants seriously debated the questions of education and culture (the meeting took place in the summer of 1941). A department of education was formed within the Jewish Council but due to the strict prohibition of the German authorities, not a single school opened. All attempts to obtain permission for any cultural activity, to hold lectures, courses, performances or a Jewish theatre and so on, were futile. The Germans did not manifest such a negative attitude towards cultural expression in any other large Jewish community as they did at Lwów. After a few months of deliberations and unsuccessful lobbying, the Council's department of education and culture abandoned its work. No overt, organised cultural or religious activity took place at Lwów. Minyanim and prayer groups convene, children met to study in private houses, and a few authors held meetings, all in great secrecy. Representatives of political parties, youth-movements, etc., met for discussions. On several occasions literary gatherings were held in the offices of the Jewish Council. Such gatherings were also secretly held. These gatherings, initiated by the advocate, Dr. Henryk Graf, who worked in one of the Council offices, were held in different rooms so as not to arouse suspicion (this was during the first months of the German invasion, when the community offices were spread throughout the town). Generally, Abraham Blatt, who had been an editorial board member of Chwila (a daily Polish-Jewish newspaper) before the war, opened the gatherings with a short address on current affairs. This was followed by a reading of chapters from the Bible (Prophets, Psalms or the five Scrolls) by the actress, Hoffman. Occasionally, the poet Maurycy Szymel read from his sad-lyric poems. After the literary section, a kind of “live newspaper” was edited with sharp words about the Judenrat and so on, (these were usually written by Dr. J. Berman and by the refugees from Kraków, the young writers Elisha Weintraub, Dr. Kornreich and Maksymilian Boruchowicz [later named, Michał Borwicz]). After a while, however, a short mention of these literary gatherings was made in the Kraków newspaper, Gazeta Żydowska. The organisers of the literary gatherings ceased holding them, in fear of persecution, but it may have been a false alarm as the Germans paid no attention to the matter.

Only in the fields of music playing and singing, did the Germans permit the Jews, or better said forced them, to undertake public cultural activities. Lwów had many Jewish musicians and singers, some renowned in their field, which the Germans and the anti-Semitic Poles used in their propaganda. A satirical “song” about Lwów's Jewish musicians appeared in the daily newspaper, Gazeta Lwowska, which named over forty artists (see Appendix VI). The Germans formed two orchestras from among the Jewish musicians, one at the Julag, and the second at Janowska camp. The Jewish Orchestra members were forced to play during very tragic moments, during the menacing inspections and the roll-calls at the gate of the ghetto, and in the camp.

In short, all we know about the ghetto's cultural life is that it was not underpinned by progression, and life, but rather, by bitter struggle and the destruction of the Jewish culture and its creators. We were able to assemble a little information about the fate of the intelligentsia during the Holocaust, their works and deaths. We enter this fragmented information here, for eternal memory.

There were in Lwów many Jewish authors who wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew or Polish. During the Russian occupation, these authors formed

[Pages 685-686]

a separate, Jewish section within Lwów's general authors' association. This section was led by the Yiddish writer Dovid Königsberg (who translated the poem Pan Tadeusz [by Adam Mickiewicz]) into Yiddish, and the secretary was the young Yiddish poet, Jakób (Jankel) Szudrich [Schudrich]. A small number of the Jewish authors succeeded in escaping from Lwów to reach Russia before the Germans arrived. Those who remained at Lwów were almost all murdered by the Nazis. Among the Yiddish writers were:

Dovid Königsberg was sent to Janowska camp, where he perished. The Yiddish author Jerachmiel (Miltche) Grin [Grün], author of “The Weavers of Kołomyja” (Di Veber fun Kolomije) previously toiled as a porter in one of the departments of the Jewish Council (the department of nutrition, or of transport). Grin continued his literary work while in the camp. He wrote a novel about life in the camp, passages from which he read out loud to his friends at an opportune moment. The text was lost when its author was lost. His wife, the poet Halina Grin, was also murdered at Janowska camp. She composed the prisoners' melancholy poem that opens with the words: “We sit on the slopes of the mountain of Sand and drink 'to Life, with Death',” which became known, and soon turned into a kind of hymn of the camp's prisoners. Jankel Szudrich wrote poems about the Baal Shem Tov and the Ukrainian outlaw [Hucuł in Polish], [Oleksa] Dovbush (according to folk legend, the Baal Shem Tov was on friendly terms with Dovbush), and probably additional poems. In one surviving letter, Szurdich described his mood and his literary work in 1942. “I leave these rough poems, raw and unpolished, without any amendments. I see that the annihilation of my People is a fact. Here, these remaining few poems will, nonetheless, bear witness to the fact that I existed and created while the butcher's knife hovers over my neck… I incessantly dreamt of at least fighting alongside the partisans, somewhere in the forests, even though I have never held a rifle in my hand I would have liked to acquire this craft, and I was prepared to confront the most dangerous. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side…”. Despite all the obstacles, eventually Szudrich managed to step in the direction of realising his dream. In February 1943, a group of youths that included Szudrich, got together and tried to break out of the ghetto and join the partisans. They negotiated with some Christians who promised to transport them to the forest, in their cars. It was probably a provocation instigated by the Gestapo, and the youths fell into the trap. The car was surrounded by armed secret police, and all the passengers were murdered.

Some writers disappeared without a trace, including, (Maurycy) Szymel, Sanie Friedman who was in Janowska camp. Debora Vogel-Barenblüth (who wrote poems and philosophical essays also in Polish). Berl Schnapper, Daniel Ihr, Esther Schuldenhein, the young YIVO [Yiddish Scientific Institute] aspirant, etc. It was said that Izrael Weinlös was caught during the Aktion against the aged (at the end of 1941), and was murdered.

Not everyone who managed to escape before the German invasion, managed to survive. The talented poet and journalist Samuel Jakób Imber was obliged to leave Lwów while it was still under Soviet control because it was reported that his poetry was not “Kosher” from the Marxist point of view. He settled in the small town Jezierna, with his parents-in-law. From there he moved to Złoczów, to the house of his brothr-in-law Dr. Hertznik, who was the director of the Jewish hospital. Imber continued his literary work and read out his compositions to the clinic's workers and patients. During the Aktion of 3^rd November 1942, the poet was caught and taken to Bełżec extermination camp. His friends and acquaintances guarded his literary legacy, until they too were murdered, and with them, Imber's last works were lost.^[11]

The renowned Yiddish author, Alter Kacyzne [Katsizne], who arrived as a refugee in 1940 and settled at Lwów, had met with a tragic end full of sufferings. During the Soviet period, he was among the spokesmen for the Jewish writers, and was appointed the literary manager of the Yiddish language broadcasts on radio Lwów. The opera Die Judens Opera (The Jews' Opera) which he composed, was accepted for performance by the State Theatre of Kiev. With the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Kacyzne escaped from Lwów, but when he reached the Tarnopol area, the Ukrainians set upon him and murdered him in a torturous and strange fashion.^[12]

Among the lost Hebrew writers were:

Mojżesz Feld, an author and teacher (teacher at the gymnasium, 17 Zygmuntowska Street), Dr. Mozes Waldman-Goliger, a researcher in Semitic languages, and lecturer at the Institute of Judaic Studies in Warsaw, was actively involved at the office of the Jewish mutual aid, and assisted authors and scholars. By the end of 1942, he disappeared, probably caught in the Aktion of August 1942. Dr. Israel Ostersetzer, was a lecturer in the Talmud at the Institute of Judaic Studies in Warsaw, and a renowned scholar in his field. He was caught in the first days after the Germans arrived in July 1941, and he never returned.

[Pages 687-688]

Among the large group of Jewish writers who wrote in Polish, those who were arrested at Janowska camp included:

The poet and literary critic, Dr. Karol Drezdner, the poet, Aleksander Dan, the satirist, Zygmunt Schorr. From amongst them only Zygmunt Schorr continued his writing in the camp. While he wrote notes about camp life, Aleksander Dan and Karol Drezdner fell into depression. The writers Halina Górska, Rafael Lan were lost without a trace. Lan's actual name was Lichtenstein (the Bund activist, Israel Lichtenstein, was his son), and he was known as an author of radical-socialist novels. Dr. Mojżesz Kanfer and Chaim Lew, were both from Kraków. Dr. Ludwik Roth, as mentioned, was cruelly murdered by the Germans on 1st September 1942.

A large number of the Jewish victims murdered in Lwów, were scholars. Among the renowned scholars in Judaic Studies, in addition to the above mentioned Dr. Goliger and Dr. Ostersetzer, was the Jewish-Polish historian, Dr. Jakób Schall, teacher at the Jewish gymnasium at 17 Zygmuntowska Street, who was arrested in the Aktion of August 1942. Dr. Schall collected to the very end, the historical details of the tragedy of Lwów's Jews, and he secreted his notes in various places, but they were all lost after his murder. During the occupation, Dr. Schall also prepared an historical study of the Karaites in Poland, at the request of Dr. Leib Landau, head of Lwów's office of Jewish aid. Dr. Landau was ordered by the German authorities to furnish explanatory material on the Karaites and their racial origin. Dr. Falik Hafner, a young historian, was one of Prof. Bałaban's students. Hafner, managed the grocery shop on behalf of the Jewish community in the ghetto, and used his position, with the consent of the Jewish Council's financial department, to secretly organise assistance for Jewish writers and scholars, and he was dedicated to his work. During the Aktion of August 1942, he hid in a bunker but was found by the Germans. When he tried to escape from among the rows of prisoners led to the gallows, the Germans shot and murdered him. Dr. [Salomon] Czortkower, a renowned Jewish anthropologist was murdered during the Aktion at the end of 1942. Dr. Jakób Willer, a linguist and researcher of the Yiddish language, had been relocated by the Germans to the Zniesienie suburb, where he starved to death. Isachar Madfes, the author of “A History of Zionism [Historia syjonizmu]” in Polish and Yiddish, was caught by German guards who found him in the street a few minutes after 8 p.m., the curfew hour for Jews (in 1942). Those who disappeared without information about their end, include: the literary critic and Hebrew philologist, Ozjasz Tilleman, teacher at the gymnasium, 17 Zygmuntowska Street. Jehuda Kohn, manager of the Jewish community's library. Maksymilian Goldstein, Jewish art collector who owned a large musical collection.

In addition to the teachers mentioned previously among the list of writers and scholars who died, one needs to mention, Dr. Isachar Reiss, a founding member of HaShomer HaTzair in Vienna and Galicia, headmaster of the Hebrew gymnasium “Tarbut” [Culture], at Równe [Rivne; Rovno], died of typhus in the ghetto, at the end of 1942 or the beginning of 1943. Dr. Barlas, headmaster of the Hebrew school at Zbaraż and later Hebrew teacher at the Łódż secondary school, also died of typhus. Abraham Roth, headmaster of Lwów's commercial secondary-school and manager of the educational department at the ghetto, died during one of the Aktionen of 1943. Dr. Cecylja Klaften, the educator also renowned for her involvement in training girls for professions, was caught during one of the Aktionen and sent to Bełżec death camp (at the end of 1942 or early in 1943). Nothing is known of the fate of [Benzion] Siwek, the Hebrew teacher and composer of textbooks; about Dr. Szlome Igel, psychologist and headmaster of the Hebrew gymnasium at 17 Zygmuntowska Street; or about the religion teacher Prof. Zygmund Sens-Taubes. All of them disappeared.

There was a large number of Jewish journalists among the Nazis' victims:

Dr. Marus Sobel, teacher and active member of Poale Zion [Workers of Zion], was murdered at Lwów during the massacre on St. Anna Street. Benzion Ginsberg and Dawid Frenkel who were at Janowska camp, were both involved with the organisation of Jewish prisoners: Ginsberg, with covert, literary activities, and Frenkel, in the underground and resistance movement. Henryk Hescheles was among the first victims of the Brygidki slaughter. Lost without trace were: Meszulem Rettig, Joel Spiegel, director of the Lwów Bureau of JTA [Jewish Telegraphic Agency]. Zygmunt Reich, Abraham Brat among the editors of Chwila. Naftali Hauser, the administrative director of Opinia, Adolf Kruman, Dr. Henryka Fromowicz-Stiller, Stanisław Saltzmann, Henryk Passierman, Isaac Damm, Emil Igel, Leon Dreikurs, Jakób Istner, Maksymiljan Schönfeld, Mojżesz Rabinowicz, the Yiddish writer Fischel Witkower, Dr. Rolller, Józef Markus, Jakób Bodek and Dr. Dawid Schreiber. The last two were, at one time, members of the Polish Sejm.

[Pages 689-690]

Those among the scientists whose lives were cut short, were:

The renowned jurist Prof. Maurycy Allerhand, the university lecturer Prof. Szymon Auerbach, and Dr. Sternbach, Prof. of mathematics at the University of Lwów. The physics lecturers, Dr. Fuchs and Dr. Griffel (murdered at Janowska camp). The psychologist,cl Dr. Leopold Blaustein, the philosopher Dr. Stefan Rudniański. The classical languages philologists, Prof. Marian Auerbach, Dr. Jakób Hendel and Miss Schulbaum. The Romance languages philologist, Helena Schlusser. The Germanists, Dr. Izydor Berman, Dr. Arnold Spät and Prof. Herman Sternbach, all three of whom wrote extensively about the Jewish problem in German literature and culture. The Polonist, Dr. Wilhelm Barbasz. Dr. Henryk Balk, who researched the history of Polish literature, committed suicide soon after the German invasion.

We do not yet have full information about the fate of the rabbis and their assistants who were martyred at Lwów. We have data about some of them:

R' Aaron Lewin, the renowned rabbi, leader of Agudas Yisroel in Poland, and representative at the Polish Sejm. His brother, Rabbi Dr. Jecheskel Lewin (see Pt. IV, Chapter 6, about both of them). The rabbis, R' Izrael Leib Wolfsberg, R' Mozes Elchanan Alter, R' Schmulka Rappaport and Dr. Kalman Chamiedes. The Admor Abraham Jakób Friedman of Boyan, who was a Turkish citizen, was arrested by the Gestapo during one of the Aktionen.^[13]

There were a great many losses amongst those in the field of Jewish art, especially in music, instrument playing and singing. Amongst the slain artists were:

The orchestra managers, Jakób Mund, who was at Janowska camp; Marceli Horowitz, and Alfred Stadler. The composers, Leonid Striks (who was at Janowska camp), Maks Striks, Józef Frenkel, Skolka and Wilhelm Kristal. The players and pianists, Leon Zak, Leon Eber, [Zygmunt] Schatz (who was at Janowska camp), Józef Herman (who was at Janowska camp), Hildebrand, Breyer, Edward Steinberger (was at Janowska camp), Dr. Aron Dobszyc, Priwes, committed suicide. The professors at Lwów's conservatoire: Leopold Münzer, Mark Bauer, Arthur Hermelin and others. Pollak, who was a renowned young prodigy, Feller, Fiszer, Szrage, Buksbaum and others, Lwów's opera singers.

During the Soviet occupation, there was a State-Jewish Theatre in Lwów, under the management of Ida Kamińska. Most of the theatre actors and management staff succeeded in escaping Lwów before the arrival of the Germans. Among these who remained and perished in the town, were:

The theatre director, Mark Katz, the actors, Rot and his wife, Sonia Altman, and others. Among the victims of the Nazis were also Jewish actors who performed at Lwów's Polish Theatre: Roman Grodniewski, Helena Flusner and the administrative director, Dr. Maurycy Axer.

And among the painters and graphic artists were:

Arno Erb, Marcin Kicz, Henryk Langerman, Julia Acker, Gabriela Frenkel, Stadler, Aleksander Rimmer (died in Paris), the decorator, Fryc Kleinman (perished at Janowska camp), and the graphic artist, Menkes.

Among the cultural figures we must also mention the Jewish physicians and the advocates, well known in their fields or for their involvement in public work. There were several hundred Jewish physicians in Lwów before the arrival of the Germans. According to a statistics collected by an anti-Semitic Polish newspaper,^[14] in 1937 there were 625 Jewish physicians, and at least 200 in Lwów. Later, especially during 1939-1940, refugee physicians from Germany, Austria and western Poland increased these numbers, and there may have been at least 1,000 physicians in Lwów. Only a few tens of them survived. Some escaped as military physicians with the Russian army, some managed to hide, and others survived the camps. The space is too short to mention them all, and only the names of the best known are listed here:

The stomatologist Dr. Allerhand, Prof. Dr. [Adolf] Gizelt (veterinarian). The anaesthetists: Dr. [Stanisław] Ruf, Dr. Maksymiljan Jurim and Dr. [Marek] Gimpel (who committed suicide), Dr. Schnitzer, an internist. Ophthalmologists, the elderly Dr. [Wiktor] Reiss and Dr. [Oswald] Zion, Dr. Oksner (according to rumours, he committed suicide), Dr. [Eugenius] Wolner, Dr. M. Bickeles, Dr. Adolf Rosmarin, Dr. [Mendel] Brill and others.

In 1934, there were 365 Jewish advocates in Lwów, and a large number of “applicants” (university graduates awaiting the licence to open a lawyer's bureau)

[Pages 691-692]

Only a fraction of them survived the Nazi destruction, and of these we will mention:

Dr. Leib Landau (see Pt. IV; Chapter 16), Dr. E Schertzer (see Pt. IV; Chapter 16), Dr. Henryk Landesberg (see Pt. IV; Ch. 13), Dr. M. Achser, the public activist Dr. Maks Schaff, Dr. Anzelm Lutwak, Dr. Leon Chotiner, Dr. Henryk Graf, Dr. Lauterstein, and others.

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