The Częstochowa Ghetto was a
World War II ghetto set up by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of
local Jews in the city of
Częstochowa
Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...
during the
German occupation of Poland
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
. The approximate number of people confined to the ghetto was around 40,000 at the beginning and in late 1942 at its peak, immediately before mass deportations, 48,000. Most ghetto inmates were delivered by the
Holocaust trains
Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' and other European railways under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holo ...
to
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...
, where they were murdered. In June 1943, the remaining ghetto inhabitants launched the
Częstochowa Ghetto uprising, which was extinguished by the ''SS'' after a few days of fighting.
[The statistical data compiled on the basis o]
"Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland"
by ''Virtual Shtetl
The Virtual Shtetl () is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland.
History
The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June 16, 2009 by founder A ...
'' Museum of the History of the Polish Jews , as well a
"Getta Żydowskie," by ''Gedeon''
and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm . Accessed July 12, 2011.
Ghetto history
The official order for the creation of the ghetto in Częstochowa was issued on 9 April 1941 by Stadthauptmann
Richard Wendler. In addition to Jews from Częstochowa, more Jews were brought in by rail from nearby towns and villages of the ''
Generalgouvernement'' part of occupied south-western
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...
, including from
Krzepice
Krzepice is a Polish town near Częstochowa, in Kłobuck County, Silesian Voivodeship, in northwestern Lesser Poland. It is near the historic border of Lesser Poland and Silesia, which goes along the Liswarta river. A few kilometers to the nort ...
,
Olsztyn
Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents
Olsz ...
,
Mstów,
Janów, and
Przyrów
Przyrów is a town in Częstochowa County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Przyrów. It lies approximately east of Częstochowa and north-east of the regional capital K ...
, on top of expellees from Polish lands
annexed into the Reich at the beginning of war, mostly from
Płock
Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...
and
Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
. The ghetto inmates were forced to
work as slave labour in the armaments industry, a majority of them in the expanded Polish foundry "Metalurgia" located on Krotka Street (which had been taken over by the German manufacturer
HASAG
HASAG (also known as Hugo Schneider AG, or by its original name in ) was a German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in Leipzig, it grew from a small business making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory ...
, and renamed Hassag-Eisenhütte AG) as well as in other local factories or workshops.
The Nazis began liquidating the ghetto on 22 September 1942 during
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...
(the day after
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur ( ; , ) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, corresponding to a date in late September or early October.
For traditional Jewish people, it is primarily centered on atonement and ...
). The first wave of deportations concluded on the night of 7 October. The action was carried out by German units together with their Ukrainian and Latvian auxiliaries (''
Hiwis''), known as
Trawniki men
During World War II, Trawniki men (; ) were Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from Prisoner of war, prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Red Army, Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the ...
, under the command of the captain of the ''
Schupo'' police, Paul Degenhardt. Every day, the Jews were being assembled on Daszyński square for "resettlement" and then transported by the
Holocaust freight trains – men, women and children – to the
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...
: around 40,000 victims in total.
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
who helped Częstochowa Ghetto's Jews included
Helena Sitkowska,
the Koźmiński family
the Klewicki family,
and the Sikora family.
Jan Brust from
Żegota was shot in the first half of 1944 for delivering food to the Jewish inmates of the slave labour facility.
Other members of the Brust family in Częstochowa helped to aid and shelter Jews, and after the war received the Righteous award.
The uprising
Those who survived the main thrust of ghetto liquidation (about 5,000–6,000 slave workers and their families) were put in the so-called Small Ghetto for the Hugo Schneider munitions factory. There, 850 Jews were executed. Soon, a clandestine ''Jewish Fighting Organisation'' was formed by Mordechaj Zilberberg, Sumek Abramowicz and Heniek Pesak among others. The organization consisted of 300 members.

When the Germans moved in to liquidate the Small Ghetto on 26 June 1943 the
Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising erupted. Zylberberg committed suicide when the Germans stormed his bunker. 1,500 Jews died in the fighting. On 30 June the resistance was suppressed with additional 500 Jews burned alive or buried beneath the rubble. 3,900 Jews were captured and put to work in labour camps Apparatebau, Warthewerk and Eisenhütte. 400 people were shot following a selection. In December that year 1,200 prisoners were transported to Germany. The men were sent to
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
, the women to
Dachau
Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...
(all perished). However, the much needed foundry camps were revived in the second half of 1944 with around 10,000 new workers sent in from Łódź, Kielce, Radomsk and Skarżysko-Kamienna. On 15 and 16 January 1945, ahead of the Soviet advance, about 3,000 prisoners were sent to Germany; all perished. The remaining 5,200 Jews employed in Częstochowa slave-labor camps were liberated by the Red Army.
See also
*
Timeline of Treblinka
Notes and references
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czestochowa Ghetto
Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland