The Jews in Lublin - Biblioteka Multimedialna Teatrnn.pl - Brama ...

10,000 victims between 30th June and 27th July 1941 3 . It is clear that the Lviv Jewish
community was more strongly affected by the opening days of the German occupation
than the Lublin Jews were during their two-year existence under their occupation.
Nevertheless, since that time the life of both communities was similar - the plunder
of property, the order to wear armbands with the Star of David (Lviv became part
of the General Government which already had this injunction), the transfer to another
district, which up until Autumn 1942, had not been a sealed ghetto 4 .
Both cities witnessed the beginning of deportations to the Bełżec extermination
camp at the same time - in March 1942. Lublin and Lviv were the first victims of the
Operation "Reinhardt", and Jews from both cities were the first to reach Bełżec (it became
the largest mass grave for both communities) 5 . Most Lublin Jews were deported,
with the process starting on 16th April 1942. The number of Jews murdered in Bełżec
is estimated at 26,000 Jews from Lublin, and 15,000 Jews from Lviv 6 .
Next waves of deportation to Bełżec - in August and November 1942 — reached
55-65,000 Jews from Lviv. The Lublin ghetto was finally liquidated on 9th November
1942. In the Lviv ghetto thousands of Jews endured till as long as June 1943, when
most of them were executed near the Janowska Street work camp, and the remaining
ones were made to work until November 1943, being systematically murdered.
The last Jews from Lublin, if not in hiding or being harboured by Lubliners, died on
3 Cf. ibid., pp. 45-57; POHL D.: Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944. Organisation
Durchjuhrung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens. Miinchen 1997, pp. 61, 69. The first
pogrom in Lviv began on 30th June 1941, when the town was deserted by the Soviet troops and
taken over by the Germans. The opened prisons revealed the Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish victims
of NKVD murders. German and Ukrainian propaganda used this information to accuse Jews of
collaboration with the Soviets, and participation in the massacre. The pogrom in prisons and in
the streets was claimed to be spontaneous; it was in fact instigated by the Germans who filmed and
photographed it (the horrible collection has survived). Next wave of mass murders in Lviv took place
between 2nd and 6th July 1941, when Einsatzkommando 6 entered the town (they also executed the
Lviv professors). Between 25th-26th July, Ukrainian nationalists held another pogrom in Lviv, which
was later known as the Days of Petlura.
4 In Lublin before the liquidation of Podzamcze ghetto (in April 1942), the Jewish district was not entirely
isolated. Some Jews lived outside the ghetto until mid-April. Cf. Archive of the State Museum
at Majdanek (hereafter, ASMM), Diaries and Reports, catalogue number VII-643, Ida Gliksztajns
Diary.
5 It is believed that deportations from Lublin and Lviv to the Bełżec concentration camp began on
the same day, 17th March, however, the literature evidence says that the March action in Lviv was
initiated on 15th March. It is unclear whether the first transport from Lviv was sent on the same or
the following day, as the first transport from Lublin, 17th March. Cf. POHL D., op. cit., p. 186;
KRUGLOV A.: Khronika Holokosta v Ukrainie 1941-1944. Dnepropetrovsk-Zaporozhie 2004, pp.
87-88.
6 Cf. POHL D., op. cit. p. 188. From among 34,000 Jews in the Lublin ghetto in 1942, most were
deported to Bełżec. About 7-8,000 were murdered in Majdanek. Cf. KUWAŁEK R.: Żydzi lubelscy
w obozie koncentracyjnym na Majdanku. „Zeszyty Majdanka", vol. XXII (2003), pp. 77-120.
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