Ghetto Siedlce the Jews photo

Ghetto Siedlce the Jews photo
As Edward Kopówka describes it in his book "Żydzi w Siedlcach 1850-1945", at the end of 1940 the occupant's authorities have distinguished in Siedlce two Jewish districts of an open type. First of them enclosed the area of the following streets: 1 Maja, Orzeszkowej, Kochanowskiego, Stary Rynek, Browarna, Jatkowa, Targowa, Asłanowicza, Błonie, Pusta; whereas the other district included the following ones: Sienkiewicza , Kilińskiego, Przejazd, Asza, Kozia, Poprzeczna, Pułaskiego and Przechodnia. These streets were mainly populated by the Jewish community. In August 1941 the Nazis established a closed ghetto in Siedlce and it embraced the first of the above mentioned districts The non-Jewish inhabitants were relocated from that part of the cities and their apartments were filled in with other Jews from Siedlce. The borders of the ghetto were enclosed with a barbed wire fence and the inhabitants were not to leave under threat of death In time, Jews from the neighboring towns, such as Czuryły, Domanice, Kreślin, Niwiski and Skórzec, were also deported here. The Romani joined them in May 1942. The living conditions in the ghetto were harsh. The buildings were crowded well above the limit - usually there were about 15 people in one room. Most of the buildings did not have any sewage system. Lack of food was another problem. At the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 there was a typhus epidemic in the ghetto and many people died.The inhabitants of the ghetto were under growing repression. Many of them were forced to work for the occupant. Tribute for the Germans had to be exacted in money and e.g. in furs. Immediate executions became a norm.The dissolution of the Jewish community in Siedlce took place on 22 August 1942. In the morning the ghetto was cordoned off by German troops, the so-called blue police and a Ukrainian troop from Trawniki. The Jews were ordered to gather at the oldest Jewish cemetery, where they had to sit without food or water until the next day. The German guards fired shots at the crowd from time to time. At noon the Germans took a group of people who were selected to work for the Nazis. At the same time, together with their assistants - Ukrainians and Jewish policemen - they searched all the buildings in the ghetto. Those who tried to hide were executed immediately or taken to Jewish cemetery at the Szkolna street to be shot there.On Sunday, 23 August 1942, around 10 000 people, from those gathered at the cemetery, were chased to a railway station and packed into the boxcars, which were then heading for Treblinka camp. The dissolution continued. On Monday the Germans murdered the whole staff and all of the patients of the Jewish hospital at the 1-Maja street. Another group of 5000-6000 Jews was loaded into the boxcars in the evening. The gas chambers in Treblinka were their last stop as well. The Germans searched the ghetto for another few days and murdered the Jews they found there.There was another ghetto, a "vestigial" one, established after the dissolution and it included the following streets: 11 Listopada, Asłanowicza and Sokołowska. It was populated with around 600 workers which were selected on 22 August 1942 and used for maintenance works. The so-called "little ghetto" was populated later on with about 1500 people who were lured there by the Germans promising them safety. On 28 November 1942 they were all transported to Treblinka.After the war, a monument to commemorate 17 000 Jewish inhabitants who fell victim to the German genocide was unveiled at Berka Joselowicza street in Siedlce.