58-709: The Radom Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto set up in March 1941 in the city of Radom during the Nazi occupation of Poland , for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Polish Jews . It was closed off from the outside officially in April 1941. A year and a half later, the liquidation of the ghetto began in August 1942, and ended in July 1944, with approximately 30,000–32,000 victims (men, women and children) deported aboard Holocaust trains to their deaths at
116-591: A Jew; There were more such murders in the Radom county. A group of villagers from around Ciepielów near Radom including Piotr Skoczylas and his eight-year-old daughter Leokadia were burned alive by a police battalion on 6 December 1942 for sheltering Jews. On the same day, another barn full of people was set on fire in nearby Rekówka , and 33 Poles saving Jews were burned alive including the families of Obuchiewicz, Kowalski, and 14 Kosiors. Roman Jan Szafranski, age 64, living in Radom with his wife Jadwiga, were caught sheltering
174-539: A Jewish girl, Anna Kerc (born in 1937); the girl was killed, he was sent to Gross-Rosen concentration camp where he perished. His wife was sent to Ravensbruck but survived. Nazi ghetto Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II , the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews , and sometimes Romani people , into small sections of towns and cities furthering their exploitation. In German documents, and signage at ghetto entrances,
232-470: A deplorable role in the "resettlement actions". The blood of hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews, caught and driven to the "death vans" will be on their heads. The Germans' tactics were usually as follows: in the first "resettlement action" they utilized the Jewish Order Service, which behaved no better from the ethical point of view than their Polish opposite numbers. In the subsequent "actions," when
290-639: A massive programme of uprooting Polish Jews from their homes and businesses through forcible expulsions . Entire Jewish communities were deported into these closed off zones by train from their places of origin systematically, using Order Police battalions , first in the Reichsgaue , and then throughout the Generalgouvernement territory. The Nazis had a special hatred of Polish and other eastern Jews. Nazi ideology depicted Jews, Slavs and Roma as inferior race Untermenschen ("subhumans") who threatened
348-754: A review process, a number of its former members joined the new national policing structure, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia). Others were prosecuted after 1949 under Stalinism . Along with the German army, a large number of police entered Poland in September 1939: 21 battalions of German police, 8,000 policemen conscripted directly into the army to strengthen the military police, as well as Einsatzgruppen. On 4 October, Criminal Police ( German : Kriminalpolizei ; Kripo ) forces from Berlin arrived in Warsaw with
406-641: A window when she tried to hang sheers, leaving her two children behind. Around December 1939 – January 1940 the Judenrat was established to serve as an intermediary organization between the German command and the local Jewish community. One thousand men were sent to labour camps of the Lublin reservation in the summer of 1940. In December, the German Governor-General Hans Frank stationing in Kraków ordered
464-687: The Treblinka extermination camp . In the invasion of Poland , the city of Radom was overrun by the German forces on 8 September 1939. The total population was 81,000 at that time of which 25,000 were Jewish. On 30 November 1939 the SS - Gruppenführer Fritz Katzmann from Selbstschutz who led the murder operations earlier in Wrocław , and in Katowice , was appointed the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of occupied Radom. His arrival
522-673: The Warsaw Ghetto alone to Treblinka over the course of 52 days. In some ghettos, local resistance organizations staged ghetto uprisings . None were successful, and the Jewish populations of the ghettos were almost entirely killed. On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps . A few ghettos were re-designated as concentration camps and existed until 1944. Blue Police The Blue Police ( Polish : Granatowa policja , lit. Navy-blue police),
580-590: The Warsaw Ghetto in October. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941. Subsequently, many ghettos were sealed from the outside, walled off with brickwork, or enclosed with barbed wire. In the case of sealed ghettos, any Jew caught leaving could be shot. The Warsaw Ghetto, located in the heart of the city, was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres ( 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 square miles). The Łódź Ghetto
638-687: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising . Most of his patients however, did not survive the Holocaust. Anielewicz died in the Uprising. Borysowicz was awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations posthumously, in 1984, four years after his death on 5 June 1980. Among those Poles who were murdered by the Nazis for saving Jews was 60-years-old Adam Rafałowicz living in Radom, shot on 18 September 1942 for rendering help to
SECTION 10
#1732858548672696-457: The ghetto uprisings . The first anti-Jewish measures were enacted in Germany with the onset of Nazism ; these measures did not include ghettoizing German Jews: such plans were rejected in the post- Kristallnacht period. However, soon after the 1939 German invasion of Poland , the Nazis began to designate areas of larger Polish cities and towns as exclusively Jewish, and within weeks, embarked on
754-454: The mobilization of the pre-war Polish police into the service of the German authorities. The policemen were to report for duty or face severe punishment. The main reason for the restoration of the Polish police was the inability to maintain order under wartime conditions, the lack of knowledge of the Polish language by German policemen, as well as the undecided fate of the occupied Polish lands,
812-559: The Commander of the Order Police. Köchlner had a reputation as an expert on the Polish police, as he had served an internship with them in 1937. He was assisted by a liaison officer, Lt. Col. Roman Sztaba, who before the war was the police commandant of the Wołyń voivodeship . Blue Police was a communal institution, maintained by the local government. The highest level of command within its ranks
870-608: The German perspective, the primary role of the Blue Police was to maintain law and order on the territories of occupied Poland , as to free the German Order Police for other duties. As Heinrich Himmler stated in his order from 5 May 1940: "providing general police service in the General Government is the role of the Polish police. German police will intervene only if it is required by the German interests and will monitor
928-572: The Germans in major operations against Jews or Polish resistors, lest they be considered traitors by virtually every Polish onlooker. Their task in the destruction of the Jews was therefore limited." Jan Grabowski , a Polish-born Jewish writer, has claimed that Blue Police played an important role in the Holocaust in Poland , often operating independently of German orders and killing Jews for financial gain. Citing
986-588: The Germans themselves executed the victims. According to Szymon Datner, "The Polish police were employed in a very marginal way, in what I would call keeping order. I must state with all decisiveness that more than 90% of that terrifying, murderous work was carried out by the Germans, with no Polish participation whatsoever." According to Raul Hilberg, "Of all the native police forces in occupied Eastern Europe, those of Poland were least involved in anti-Jewish actions.... They [the Polish Blue Police] could not join
1044-457: The Germans to be giving any help to a Jew was subject to the death penalty. In 1942, the Nazis began Operation Reinhard , the systematic deportation of Jews to extermination camps . Nazi authorities throughout Europe deported Jews to ghettos in Eastern Europe or most often directly to extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland . Almost 300,000 people were deported from
1102-517: The Jewish Order Service was liquidated as well, the Polish Police force was utilized." A substantial part of the police belonged to the Polish underground resistance Home Army , mostly its counterintelligence and National Security Corps . Some estimates are as high of 50%. Some policemen refused German orders, "shouting in the streets and breaking[?] doors to give people time to escape or hide". Officers who disobeyed German orders did so at
1160-559: The KdO. The Polish Criminal Police ( German : Polnische Kriminalpolizei ) became a separate service, excluded from the Blue Police and subordinated to the German Kripo, and thus part of the Security Police. The Blue Police did not have a separate commander this role was de facto performed by its organizer Major Hans Köchlner, who was a supervisory officer over Polish Police in the staff of
1218-486: The Nazis usually referred to them as Jüdischer Wohnbezirk or Wohngebiet der Juden , both of which translate as the Jewish Quarter . There were several distinct types including open ghettos , closed ghettos , work , transit , and destruction ghettos , as defined by the Holocaust historians. In a number of cases, they were the place of Jewish underground resistance against the German occupation, known collectively as
SECTION 20
#17328585486721276-568: The Polish police." As the force was primarily a continuation of the prewar Polish police force, it also relied largely on prewar Polish criminal laws, a situation that was accepted as a provisional necessity by the Germans. The role of the Blue Police in its collaboration and resistance towards the Germans is difficult to assess as a whole and is often a matter of dispute. Historian Adam Hempel estimated based on data from resistance that circa 10% members of Blue Police and Criminal Police can be classified as collaborators. Scholars disagree about
1334-522: The Radom ghetto were turned into a temporary labor camp. The last Radom Jews were evicted in June 1944, when on June 26 the last inhabitants were deported to Auschwitz. Only a few hundred Jews from Radom survived the war. Among the Polish rescuers of Jews , the most prominent role belonged to Dr. Jerzy Borysowicz [ pl ] , director of the mental hospital in Radom located at Warszawska Street. The facility
1392-611: The UPA massacres . Warsaw was the biggest city in the Generalgouvernement , so the position of commander of the Warsaw police was the most important post available to an ethnic Pole in German-occupied Poland. Its first chief, Marian Kozielewski [ pl ] ( Jan Karski 's brother), was imprisoned by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp . Its next chief, Aleksander Reszczyński [ pl ] ,
1450-422: The bacteria that causes epidemic typhus, were publicized, and the respected status of German doctors helped spread the belief that the Jews were responsible for spreading typhus. The German public health officials in occupied Poland were concerned only with the health of German personnel, so they repeatedly urged occupation authorities to isolate Jews further from the rest of the population. German forces regarded
1508-567: The book: He states, "For a Jew, falling into the hands of the Polish police meant, in practically all known cases, certain death... The historical evidence—hard, irrefutable evidence coming from the Polish, German, and Israeli archives—points to a pattern of murderous involvement throughout occupied Poland." According to Emanuel Ringelblum , who compared the role of the Polish police to the Jewish Ghetto Police ( Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst , Jewish Order Service), "The uniformed police has had
1566-577: The city overall population, were forced to live in 2.4% of the city's area, a density of 7.2 people per room. In the ghetto of Odrzywół , 700 people lived in an area previously occupied by five families, between 12 and 30 to each room. The Jews were not allowed out of the ghetto, so they had to rely on smuggling and the starvation rations supplied by the Nazis: in Warsaw this was 1,060 kJ (253 kcal) per Jew, compared to 2,800 kJ (669 kcal) per Pole and 10,930 kJ (2,613 kcal) per German. With
1624-446: The crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and insufficient sanitation (coupled with lack of medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease became a major feature of ghetto life. In the Łódź Ghetto some 43,800 people died of 'natural' causes, and 76,000 in the Warsaw Ghetto before July 1942. To prevent unauthorised contact between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, German Order Police battalions were assigned to patrol
1682-578: The degree of involvement of the Blue Police in the rounding up of Jews. Although policing inside the Warsaw Ghetto was a responsibility of the Jewish Ghetto Police , a Polish-Jewish historian Emmanuel Ringelblum , chronicler of the Warsaw Ghetto , mentioned Polish policemen carrying out extortions and beatings. The police also took part in street roundups. On 3 June 1942, members of the Blue Police refused to execute 110 Jews in Gęsiówka prison in Warsaw, but they were forced to watch, some of them wept, while
1740-536: The establishment of ghettos as temporary measures, in order to allow higher level Nazis in Berlin to decide how to execute their goal of eradicating Jews from Europe. Nazi officials had an Endziel , an unarticulated final goal that would take time to reach, and also an Endlösung , a "final solution" which was a euphemism for the murder of Jews. Toward the Endziel and Endloesung there were intermediate goals to be carried out in
1798-480: The expulsion of 10,000 Jews from the city. Only 1,840 were deported due to technical difficulties. In the spring of 1941 there were about 32,000 Jews in Radom. Katzmann remained there until Operation Barbarossa . The city of Radom received Jews expelled from other locations in Poland including the Jewish inmates of the Kraków Ghetto because Kraków – according to the wishes of Gauleiter Hans Frank –
Radom Ghetto - Misplaced Pages Continue
1856-684: The first months of 1942 the Germans carried out several actions, arresting or summarily executing various leaders of the Jewish community. The Germans began to liquidate the Radom Ghetto in earnest, starting in August 1942 as part of Operation Reinhard . The first large deportation emptied the smaller Glinice ghetto. The Germans were aided by the Polish Blue Police units, and "Hiwis" . By the end of August approximately 2,000 Jews remained in Radom. The deported Jews were sent to extermination camps (primarily Treblinka and Auschwitz ). The remnants of
1914-458: The force was the result of expulsion to Generalgouvernement of all Polish professional policemen, from the territories annexed by the Third Reich ( Reichsgau Wartheland , Westpreußen , etc.). Another reason was a salary (250–350 zł) impossible to obtain elsewhere, augmented by bonuses (up to 500 zł each). Also, the Germans had intentionally eroded moral standards of the force by giving policemen
1972-478: The formation of Jewish ghettos caused hunger and poverty, crowding and unsanitary conditions, which in turn actually created typhus epidemics in occupied Poland. German physicians and public health officials in the Nazi regime did not acknowledge this; instead, German medical professionals published essays blaming Jewish people's supposed "low cultural level" and "uncleanliness" for the typhoid epidemics. Posters depicting Jews as lice, which transmit from person to person
2030-416: The formation of the so-called residual state, Reststaat, was still under consideration. The police was finally formed on 17 December 1939, by order of Governor General Hans Frank . In January 1940, the manpower of the Blue Police amounted to more than 10,000 men, including 1173 criminal policemen. After verification and the removal of most senior officers, the newly created police force was subordinated to
2088-489: The ghetto had to have identification papers proving they were not Jewish (none of their grandparents was a member of the Jewish community), such as a baptism certificate. Such documents were sometimes called "Christian" or "Aryan papers". Poland's Catholic clergy massively forged baptism certificates, which were given to Jews by the dominant Polish resistance movement, the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa , or AK). Any Pole found by
2146-492: The invasion, around September–October 1939, the SS conducted surprise raids on synagogues. The worshipers were dragged out and put into labour commandos. The Radom Synagogue was desecrated by the Nazis and its furnishings destroyed. To instill fear, the Jewish city councilor Jojna (Yona) Zylberberg was marched with a stone over his head and beaten by the SS soldiers. His wife died in an accident at home only months earlier by falling out of
2204-512: The perimeter. Within each ghetto, a Jewish Ghetto Police force was created to ensure that no prisoners tried to escape. In general terms, there were three types of ghettos maintained by the Nazi administration. The parts of a city outside the walls of the Jewish Quarter were called "Aryan". For example, in Warsaw , the city was divided into Jewish, Polish, and German Quarters. Those living outside
2262-544: The police force consisted of approximately 11,000–12,000 officers, but the actual number of its cadre was much lower initially. Emmanuel Ringelblum put the number as high as 14,300 by the end of 1942 including Warsaw, Lublin, Kielce and Eastern Galicia. The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust reports its manpower as 8,700 in February 1940 and states that it reached its peak in 1943 with 16,000 members. The statistics are explained by historian Marek Getter. The initial expansion of
2320-464: The purity of Germany's Aryan Herrenrasse ("master race"), and viewed these people and also political opponents of the Nazi party as parasitic vermin or diseases that endangered the overall health of the Volksgemeinschaft , the German racial community. German doctors and public health officials helped advance these racist fearmongering ideas. The German invasion of Poland (Sept. 1, 1939) and
2378-611: The right to keep for themselves 10% of all confiscated goods. The Blue Police consisted primarily of Poles and Polish speaking Ukrainians from the eastern parts of the General Government. The Blue Police had little autonomy, and all of its high-ranking officers came from the ranks of the German police ( Kriminalpolizei ). It served in the capacity of an auxiliary force, along with the police forces guarding seats of administration ( Schutzpolizei ), Railway Police ( Bahnschutzpolizei ), Forest Protection Command ( Forstschutzkommando ) and Border Guard ( Grenzschutz ). The Blue Police
Radom Ghetto - Misplaced Pages Continue
2436-541: The risk of death. A few Blue Police members who acted against orders were eventually recognized as Righteous among the Nations . Additionally, forcible draft among members of the Polish police was conducted to create the Polnisches Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 202 sent to the East, with 360 men most of whom deserted to the 27th Home Army Infantry Division in defence of ethnic Polish population against
2494-559: The short term, and one of these was to concentrate Jews from the countryside into larger cities, thus making certain areas Judenrein ("clean of Jews"). The first ghetto of World War II was established on 8 October 1939 at Piotrków Trybunalski (38 days after the invasion), with the Tuliszków ghetto established in December 1939. The first large metropolitan ghetto known as the Łódź Ghetto ( Litzmannstadt ) followed them in April 1940, and
2552-721: The task of taking control of the Polish police. In early November 1939, the Einsatzgruppen operating in Poland were transformed into the Security Police Command ( German : Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD ; KdS) and the Order Police Command ( German : Kommandeur der Ordnungspolizei ; KdO). After the establishment of the General Government , less than 5,000 Order Police ( German : Ordnungspolizei ; Orpo ) were deployed on its territory. The Orpo
2610-492: The war. The Germans forced the Jewish community to pay contributions, and seized their valuables and businesses. Nevertheless, the precious metal holdings were already depleted because the Radom Jews ;– especially the Jewish women from "Wizo" – made massive donations to Polish air-force fund for months before the invasion. Even the least fortunate Jews purchased air-defense bonds with pride until May 1939. Soon after
2668-510: Was an auxiliary institution tasked with protecting public safety and order in the General Government . The Blue Police, initially employed purely to deal with ordinary criminality, was later also used to counter smuggling , which was an essential element of German-occupied Poland's underground economy . The organization was officially dissolved and declared disbanded by the Polish Committee of National Liberation on 15 August 1944. After
2726-764: Was divided into the Protection Police ( German : Schutzpolizei ; Schupo ) which stationed in cities, and the Gendarmerie (formed in summer 1940 ) stationing in villages and towns with a population of less than 5,000. In May 1940, the Special Service ( German : Sonderdienst ), a 2,500-member paramilitary organization made up of Volksdeutsche, many of whom spoke Polish, was established. On 30 October 1939, Higher SS and Police Leader in General Government Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger ordered
2784-419: Was followed by wanton violence and plunder for personal gain. Katzmann ordered the execution of Jewish leaders right away. Before the creation of a ghetto, many Jews were pressed into forced labor . One of their first tasks on German orders was to rebuild the prewar Polish Łucznik Arms Factory damaged in the attack, to meet the German military needs. The factory served as the major local Nazi employer throughout
2842-564: Was set up at Wałowa street in central Śródmieście District and the "small ghetto" at the Glinice District. As with many other ghettos across occupied Poland , starvation was not uncommon. The German-allotted rations for a person in the ghetto were 100 grams (3.5 oz) of bread per day. Nonetheless the conditions in the Radom Ghetto were on average better than in many other contemporary ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe . In
2900-523: Was somewhat greater, although they were also under the strict control of the local Schupo. In practice, this meant that an order to a blue policeman could be given by any uniformed German functionary. Policemen wore the same uniforms, but without national insignia. After the German attack on the USSR the District of Galicia was incorporated into General Government, but the Blue Police was not established there, it
2958-507: Was spared by the Nazis only because the former church building could not be turned into any war-related purpose. The Jews, including children, were receiving daily help from Borysowicz as well as his medical staff in total secrecy. The most dramatic was the rescue of people suffering in the ghetto from the typhoid fever . Borysowicz treated Mordechai Anielewicz , leader of the Jewish Combat Organization instrumental in engineering
SECTION 50
#17328585486723016-409: Was split in two like in many other Polish cities. The ghetto gates were closed from the outside on 7 April 1941. About 33,000 Polish Jews were gathered there; 27,000 at the main ghetto, and about 5,000 at a smaller ghetto in the suburb. Most of the ghetto area was not walled; the barriers were formed by the buildings themselves and the exits were managed by Jewish and Polish police. The "large ghetto"
3074-684: Was subordinate to the German Order Police with Polish prewar regulations. New volunteers ( Anwärter ) were trained at a police school in Nowy Sącz , with 3,000 graduates (receiving salary of 180 zł each), under the Schutzpolizei Major Vincenz Edler von Strohe (real name Wincenty Słoma, a Reichdeutscher formerly in the Austrian police). There were additional though separate courses for Polish and Ukrainian enlisted ranks . From
3132-399: Was that of district or city commandant. The Blue Police was essentially the executive body of the local Gendarmerie and Schupo. The role of the district commandant was diminishing, and by the end of the occupation he had effectively become a figurehead. In the districts, individual stations were directly under the supervision of the local Gendarmerie. In urban areas, the role of commandants
3190-573: Was the police during the Second World War in the General Government area of German-occupied Poland . Its official German name was Polnische Polizei im Generalgouvernement (Polish Police of the General Government; Polish : Policja Polska Generalnego Gubernatorstwa ). The Blue Police officially came into being on 30 October 1939 ( 1939-10-30 ) when Germany drafted Poland's prewar state police officers ( Policja Państwowa ), organizing local units with German leadership. It
3248-604: Was the second largest, holding about 160,000 people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, there were at least 1,000 such ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Ghettos across Eastern Europe varied in their size, scope and living conditions. The conditions in the ghettos were generally brutal. In Warsaw , the Jews, comprising 30% of
3306-443: Was to become the "racially cleanest" city of the General Government territory to serve as its German capital. The Governor-General Frank issued an order to create Radom ghetto in March 1941. A week earlier the Jewish Ghetto Police was formed by the new Nazi administration to aid with the relocations. The Jews were given ten days in which to vacate their prewar homes and settle within the ghetto zone along with their families. The area
3364-511: Was under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian police . During the first year of occupation, about a thousand police stations were restored in the General Government. Their staffing reached the pre-war state. This was due to the fact that in the remaining areas of occupied Poland the Polish police was liquidated, and policemen were encouraged or forced to move to the General Government. According to historian Andrzej Paczkowski ( Spring Will Be Ours ),
#671328