Remember Jewish Bełżyce

Pronunciation: Belz-itz

HISTORY OF JEWISH BELZYCE

Belzyce is a city located 25 km. southwest of Lublin and has a current population of 7,000 people. It is different from the location called Belzec, the notorious death camp.

A charter of privileges granted to Belzyce in 1432 designated it a compulsory step for merchants who traveled to the Lublin fair. In the mid-1500s, Jakub Nachman, known as Jakub of Bełżyce, was the teacher at a Jewish school in the community. He also distinguished himself as a scholar, researcher, and defender of Talmudic tenets. Outside of teaching, he also initiated an open polemic with Christian preachers concerning Jewish traditions and liturgical rites. He authored the work Odpis Jakóba z Bełżyc na Dialogi Marcina Czechowica (Jakub of Bełżyce’s Reply to the Dialogues of Marcin Czechowic). In it, he expressed strong criticism of the preacher’s teachings, particularly regarding the allegation that Jews used Christian blood for liturgical purposes. Written in Polish, the work is the first known text authored by a Polish Jew.

In a document from 1574, the names of 3 Jews living in Bełżyce at that time (Abram, Jakub and Josko) can be found, and they were noted as owners of city squares and houses. The Council of Four Lands convened in Belzyce in 1643 and in 1689 and 1691.

The first Jews in Bełżyce engaged in trade and crafts, and also owned inns that provided lodging for traveling merchants. By the mid-16th century, members of the Jewish community also owned town plots and residential buildings in the center of Bełżyce. Economic life was concentrated within the Jewish quarter, which encompassed Żydowska Street (now 1000-lecia Street), Zatylna Street (now Jakuba Nachmana Street), and Południowa Street (now Bednarska Street).

The community suffered heavy losses during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-1649 in which the synagogue, school, and many human lives were exterminated. The town organized six fairs per year, which were attended by Jewish merchants from all areas of the Lublin Guberniya (Governorate). Jews in town owned 19 stalls in the market, as well as taverns with stables that were rebuilt after the 1780 fire.

In 1764, the Jewish population numbered 949. In 1859 the population consisted of 49 tradesmen of various goods, 17 tailors, 57 shoemakers, 3 bakers, 2 furriers, 2 tanners, 1 distiller and 5 innkeepers.

The 18th century was a period of particular prosperity for the Jewish community. At that time, Bełżyce held the right to host six annual fairs, which generated significant profits for Jewish merchants, traders, and artisans. Jews also secured the right to propinacja (the exclusive right to produce and sell alcohol). Furthermore, 19 townhouses and over a dozen inns with stables were owned by Jewish entrepreneurs. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Bełżyce became a significant center of Hasidism. The first leader of this movement in the city was Rabbi Yitzhak Moshe Azriel Licht, who died in 1831. Prominent rabbis such as Gedalia Jakubson, Kelman Icak Jakubson, Szulim Rotensztajn and Jakub Sznajderman were active in the community. Ritual slaughterers in the late 1900s included Chaskiel Szapiro, Perec Goldberg, Kalman Abandel.

By the year 1897, 1,705 Jews (out of 3,182) resided in Belzyce. When Poland regained its independence in 1918, in addition to the great synagogue and beit hamidrash, there were 6 private prayer houses, 8 cheders, a mikvah, a ritual slaughterhouse and two cemeteries -- the old one (excluded from use) and the new one operating from 1825, in Belzyce. Statistics from the period indicate that religious ceremonies in the synagogue were regularly attended by approximately 230 adult men [above 12 years of age].

In 1921, 1,882 Jews (over half the total population) lived in Belzyce. The Jewish district included Zydowska Street (now 1000 lecia Street), Zatylna Street (now Jakub Nachman Street) and Poludniowa Street (now Bednarska Street). The economic development of the Jewish population in Bełżyce is evidenced by the existence of the Ziarno Agricultural and Commercial Cooperative and a loan association. The cooperative was established on the initiative of local Jewish merchants — including Moszek Klejman, Dawid Flamenbaum and Kielman Frydman — and operated between 1933 and 1937; its purpose was to source food products (primarily from local farmers) and to sell industrial and agricultural goods. The loan association, managed by Lejzor Wajsbrot, Mordka Beatman, and Szmul Weller, was intended to provide financial capital to aspiring Jewish entrepreneurs.

South of the market square at Tysiąclecia there was a house of prayer founded in the 1800s. There were two houses of prayer in the market square, both founded in 1913 — one run by Jakubson and one by Naftali Gut. The house of prayer at Szkolna Street in Bełżyce was founded in 1912 by Abram Grosman. A house of prayer (small synagogue) in Belzyce existed since 1740, with daily attendance of over 200 individuals. It was located on Szkolna Street. The old synagogue in Bełżyce was built in the 2nd half of the 16th century, on the square located south of the market square. Next to the synagogue there was a beit ha-midrash and a mikveh. It was a magnificent building clearly dominating the panorama of the city and surpassing other buildings. The large synagogue had been rebuilt several times after being destroyed by fire, most recently in 1930. It was located on Szkolna Street. There was also a mikveh; the mikveh building was made of brick.

During the interwar period, Belzyce was a typical shtetl, with a Christian community that mainly pursued agriculture and petty handicraft production, and a Jewish community who lived off small trade (textile fabrics, paraffin oil, ironware), crafts and providing credit services to the residents of the town and the kehilla. At the beginning of the 1930s, the kehilla controlled the synagogue, the bathhouse and the two cemeteries. Thirty-five shops and market stalls were owned by Jewish residents. Jewish tailors, shoemakers and glaziers were highly respected by non-Jewish townsmen and peasants. There was also a Jewish photographer, Mostek Goldsztajn, and a barber and dentist, Jakub Kirszt, worked in the town.

The youth organization "Gordonia" incorporated many educational aspects into its program, including lectures and workshops related to Zionism. An educational institution run by the "Tarbut" Jewish Cultural and Educational Association was also active in the town; instruction there was conducted in Hebrew. A Beit Yaakov religious school was available for girls and eight elementary Jewish religious schools for boys (cheders) operated in Bełżyce.

2,100 Jews resided in Belzyce in 1939.

NEARBY JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Jews also lived in nearby communities such as Brzeziny (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Bychawa (2,459 Jews), Chodel (950 Jews in 1939), Jaszczów (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Krzczonów (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Ludwin (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Łęczna (2,600 Jews in 1939), Lubartów (3,411 Jews in 1939), Mołgiew (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Niedzwica Duza (65 Jews in 1921), Piotrowice (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Rudno (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Serniki (27 Jews), Spiczyn (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Wojciechów (unknown number of Jews in 1939), Wólka (34 Jews) and Zemborzyce (unknown number of Jews in 1939).

Jews may have also lived in rural villages near Belzyce, such as Matczyn and Niedzwice Koszielna. The populations of Jews in these communities are not known, and no record of them exists today. Some information is available about the following Jewish communities:

- Konopnica: In 1921, the gmina (district) Konopnica included 122 Jews. They were dispersed in Helenow (6 Jews), the village of Konpnica (22 Jews), Marynin (15 Jews), Motycz (22 Jews), Radawiec Wielski (10 Jews), Slawinek (13 Jews), Uniszowice (8 Jews), Weglin (22 Jews), Wola Slawinska/Szerokie (4 Jews). The local Jews were sent to forced labor, mainly road construction. There were other acts of violence committed against the Jews. On June 16, 1940, policemen from the Selbstschutz (a paramilitary organization of ethnic Germans) arrived in the villages of the gmina, caught a few dozen local men, and killed them in reprisal for the killing of a local Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) man named Buchal by Polish partisans. According to a letter sent to the Lublin Judenrat by Szyfra Sztajnkeler and Toba Ajzenberg from Radawiec, and by Szulem Rajn from Lublin, there were some Jewish men among those taken from their homes and marched to the Radawiec forest: Jankiel Sztajnkeler, Majer Sztajnkeler, Perec Pomeraniec, Freim Pomeraniec, Nusyn and Mordche Ajzenberg, and Mordche Hersz Cajg – all from Radawiec. Although the National Municipal Council in Konopnica stated on April 8, 1952 that there had been no "large-scale murder operations of Jews," nor any labor camps for Jews in the gmina, according to historians Edward Dziadosz and Józef Marszałek, there were labor camps for Jews both in Motycz and in Radawiec. According to the minutes of the meeting of the Lublin Judenrat from July 13, 1940, by that time there were thirty workers at a manor in Radawiec, twenty at a manor in Motycz, twenty in Wola Sławińska, fifty at another manor in Motycz, and another twenty also in Motycz. One-hundred and twenty-four Jews remained in the Konopnica gmina in August of 1942. On October 9, 1942, Nazi district leader Emil Ziegenmeyer ordered all the Jews to move to the nearby town of Bełżyce, some 10-15 kilometers west of these villages. Between October 9-11, 1942, Jews from the various gminas were gathered in the Belzyce Ghetto. All were deported to death camps thereafter and murdered.

- Niedzwica Duza: This village had 65 Jews in 1921. It is not clear what the Jewish population was in 1939. It is located north and west of Bychawa and south and east of Belzyce. The train station in Niedrzwica Duża was used to deport Jews to the Treblinka Death Camp, and a German Gendarmerie station was set up in the village. Its gendarmes played an active role in individual and group murders of both local and non-local Jews, as attested by Polish residents of the area during the investigation of Nazi crimes in Poland in 1967. Testimony from a Polish witness singles out S.S. men Alfred Pudel, Heinrich Rejch and Fritz Thomke as extremely ruthless S.S. operatives. Eventually, the Jews from the village were deported to the Belzyce Ghetto, where they met the same fate as the Jews from Belzyce.

- Piotrowice: About 20 km. from Belzyce is a rural shtetl called Piotrowice. The 1921 census of Poland recorded the presence of Jewish communities in the villages of Abramów, Bystrzyce, Bychawka, Dębina, Kiełczewice Dolne, Kiełczewice Górne, Osmolice, Rechta, Strzyżewice, Tuszów, and Żabia Wola. In May of 1942, Julian Domini, the head of the municipality (wójt) of Piotrowice, provided the following figures to Kreishauptmann Emil Ziegenmeyer: the overall number of Jews in the gmina Piotrowice was 497, including 289 Jews who were able to work. By September of 1942, more specific population numbers were available: Bystrzyca had 40 Jews, Borkowizna had 36 Jews, Dębina had 28 Jews, Osmolice had 9 Jews, Strzyżewice and Rechta (combined) had 105 Jews, Tuszów had 9 Jews and Żabia Wola had 207 Jews. Zabia Wola is located 4.8 km. north and west of Piotrowice.

On October 9, 1942, Emil Ziegenmeyer issued a deportation order that required Jews from rural villages in the following districts to assemble in Belzyce Ghetto: (1) Piotrwice gmina including all of the communities aforementioned; (2) Bychawa gmina including the villages of Bychawa, Bychawka Druga, Łęczyca, Podzamcze, Urszulin and others; (3) Jastków gmina including the villages of Dąbrowica, Jastków, Marysin, Płouszewice and Wysokie; (4) Krzczonów gmina including the villages of Kosarzew Dolny, Olzcanka, Policzyzna, Źuków and others; (5) Niedrzwica gmina including Niedrzwica Duża, Niedrzwica Kościelna, Osmolice and others; and (6) Wojciechów gmina including the villages of Maszki, Milocin-Czujki, Palikije and the village of Wojciechów.

Holocaust survivor Joseph Green testified after the war: “When we arrived [at the Belzyce Ghetto], people were spread out all over the streets. There was not an inch of ground empty. There were people, there were kids, bunking out in the middle of the street, because every house was loaded with people.” We do not know the individual fates of most of the Jews from the villages of the Piotrowice gmina, nor how many of them survived.

- Wojciechów: According to the 1921 census, 53 Jews lived in Wojciechów district. The village of Wojciechów is located north of Belzyce. Those villages with a Jewish community in the district in 1921 included Maszki (10 Jews), Miłocin-Czujki (10 Jews), Palikije (10 Jews) and Wojciechów (23 Jews). During the Holocaust, there was a Blue (Polish) Police station in Wojciechów. The nearest Gendarmerie station was in the town of Bełżyce, 8 km. to the south. On November 23, 1939, all Jews in the area were ordered to wear armbands. According to the head of the Wojciechów gmina, the overall number of Jews under his jurisdiction was 152, including 58 workers and their 62 family members. In September of 1942, Jews in the gmina were informed that all the Jews from the villages of the gmina were to move to Bełżyce. Most of these 152 Jews were subsequently met the same fate as others Jews in the Belzyce Ghetto. Separately, according to the Polish historian Stanisław Jastrzębski, one Pole and 15 Jews were also murdered in the village of Wojciechów in October of 1943.

THE HOLOCAUST IN BELZYCE: LOCAL GHETTO, TRANSIT GHETTO AND LABOR CAMP
(Note: This is a different location than Belzec .)

The German army entered the city in mid-September 1939, and the Jewish population became subject to the persecution and terror carried out throughout Lublin Province. The Belzyce ghetto was established in June of 1940 and a Judenrat was selected. Jews from Belzyce and nearby towns (including Bychawa and Piotrowice) were resettled into a dozen or so houses on Poludniowa Street (now Tysiaclecia Street) in December 1940 and confined to the ghetto.

Belzyce became a transit ghetto that housed Jews from all over Europe.

Additionally, the Germans in Belzyce oversaw a slave labor camp operating separate from the ghetto, under the auspices of the nearby Majdanek concentration camp. Workers at this location were in forced labor related to construction and infrastructure development. The camp operated until May 1943.

In February 1940, about 300 Jews from Stettin, Germany were deported to Belzyce ghetto. In February and March 1941, about 500 Jews from Krakow and another 500 Jews from Lublin were forced to settle in town. On May 8, 1942, 1,200 Jews from Leipzig in Germany were relocated to Belzyce, while on May 12, 1942 several thousand Jews from central Germany (Saxony and Thuringen) were deported to Belzyce. Jews from towns nearby Belzyce, such as the city of Lublin, were also deported to the Belzyce ghetto. The population grew to about 4,500 people by the time the mass deportations to the death camps began.

The ghetto was surrounded by a wall in January of 1942. Previously, it had not been closed but had been guarded by Jewish policemen. Ukrainians from Trawniki oversaw the execution of many Jews in the ghetto as well. The Jews kept in the crowded area of the ghetto were decimated by typhus and the inhumane sanitary conditions. In spring 1942, the Germans conducted an Aktion against the Jews in Belzyce. They rounded up over 3,000 Jews for extermination at Sobibor and Majdanek. Many of the Jews selected for the transport were shot during the 10 km. march from Belzyce to the railway station in the village of Niedrzwica Duza, 24 km. (15 mi.) southwest of the regional capital Lublin. Deportations from the Belzyce Ghetto to the Majdanek Concentration Camp took place on May 11, 1942 [580 Jews] and again on October 2, 1942 [unknown number of Jews]. Yad Vashem indicates that the October deportation was destined for Treblinka Death Camp.

On October 2, 1942, S.S. men with Ukrainian assistants murdered 150 male Jews, many of them from Thuringen in Germany, in front of the Belzyce synagogue. On October 13, 1942, another aktion took place and thousands of Jewish community members were murdered, either in the town itself or via transport to Sobibor. Jews from Belzyce were also deported to the Piaski Ghetto and the Poniatowa Concentration Camp on October 13, 1942. All Jews at Poniatowa were murdered in the Aktion Erntefest on November 3-4, 1943.

In May of 1943, the remaining ghetto inhabitants — 850 to 1000 Jews, mostly women and children — were murdered in the Jewish cemetery.

After this, a final group of workers — 250 women and 350 men — were sent to Budzyn Labor Camp or the Piaski transit ghetto, where only a handful survived. The Jewish community in Belzyce ceased to exist.

NAZI PERPETRATORS

Among the Nazis responsible for the liquidation of the Belzyce ghetto and murdering the remaining Jews was Reinhold Feix, August Preyssl and Heinrich Reich. As Kreishauptmann (District Director), Nazi Emil Ziegenmyer organized and arranged the deportations of the Jewish community from the Belzyce Ghetto to their subsequent deaths.

Nazis based at Niedrzwica Duza, a village south of Belzyce, included: Friedrich Ahrens, Xaver Gentner, Alfred Pudel, Peter Steinmetz, Friedrich Fritz Thomke and Jakob Welsch. Local Polish collaborators in the area surrounding Belzyce included: Tomasz Kubot and Czeslow Zgorski. Wincenty Witko from the Ukraine was also a participant in the murders of Jews locally and was eventually sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

WHAT REMAINS

Of around 2,100 pre-war Jews in the town, only 35 survived the duration of the Holocaust.

The old Jewish cemetery was active between the 1500s until 1810. It was located at the intersection of today's Bednarska Street, Tysiąclecia and Jakuba Nachmana z Bełżyce Street (former Zatylna, Żydowska and Zatylna street intersection). Nimrod Ariav created a memorial there in 1992. No grave markers remain.

In 1810, the new Jewish cemetery was established 1.2 km. southwest of the market square at Przemysłowa Street. 149 Jews were shot in front of the synagogue on October 2, 1942 and buried at this locale in a mass grave. A stone wall memorial was created in the 1980s by Nimrod Ariav.

Additionally, a Torah scroll from 1730 as well as both synagogues were destroyed by the Nazi S.S.

Zachor - We Remember. Please review the site content below.

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[Belzyce - Project Muse] [Belzyce Jewish Cemetery]
[Jewish Families of Belzyce - Geni.com]
[Mirka Winer Written Testimony - Belzyce]
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Join the Belzyce group on Facebook!

City of Belzyce:

- Coming Soon

Majdan Tatarski Ghetto Victims (Lublin) from Belzyce:
Idesa Bundzmen
Szloma Abram Cymerman
Moszko Fajgenblum
Mala Fajgenblum
Perec Fajgenblum
Perec Fersztman
Frajda Kestenberg
Sura Rywka Kierszenbaum
Chaja Sura Keller
Srul Landesberg
Chana Lederman, nee Rozenknopf
Bajla Ita Rozenkopf
Chaim Sztajnkeller
Chaim Sznajderman
Rywka Trachtenberg
Mordechaj Troper or Troppe
Szmul Lejzor Troppe
Elka Wajcman
Jankiel Icek Wakszul
(source:Brama Grodzka - Teatr NN)

Survivors of Belzyce:

- Dora Arbuz
- Jeremiasz Arbuz
- Lejb Arbuz
- Mania Arbuz
- Nimrod Ariav
- Myron Bander
- Pawel Blank
- Yaffa Blumenkranc
- Esther Cane
- Malka Davidson
- Judka Dekiermacher
- Mordko Edelstein
- Yitzchak Fajgenbaum
- Misza Fersztman
- Symcha Fersztman
- Szol Fersztman
- Velvele Wolf Gaister
- Josef Galster
- Srul Siergiej Geber
- Chava Frajhof Geister
- Paula Gold
- Berek Goldstein
- Chaim Grabel
- Abram Grunbaum
- Jerzy Gut
- Sara Kam
- Chaim Kirsz (Kirscht)
- Jakob Kirsz (Kirscht)
- Aron Kleinman
- Shirley Kowitz
- Jakob Kusmann
- Elka Lajwand
- Estera Lajwand
- Israel Lajwand
- Kalman Lajwand
- Sam Lajwand
- Chaja Mantel
- Yisrael Morgenstern
- Abram Rajs
- Regina Schapiro
- Abram Scherman
- Rosa Sztajwurcel
- Sara Stajnwurcel
- Ben Taublik
- Jack Terry, aka Jakub Szabmacher
- Berek Tyszblatt
- Lejb Wajsbrot
- Nusia Weingarten
- Szloma Weller
- Rivka Westraich
- Mirka Winer (Wiener)
- Harry Zansberg

Righteous Gentiles:

- Piotr Raczynski from Motycz Lesny

Genealogy:

- Jewish Records Index — Belzyce
- Jewish Vital Records in the Polish State Archives

Remember Your Family:

- Central Judaica Database - Museum of History of Polish Jews
- Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors on Facebook
- Guide to the YIVO Archives
- Holocaust News/Events from Generations of the Shoah Int'l
- Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database
- JewishGen Family Finder
- JewishGen Holocaust Database
- JRI-Poland: Search for Your Family
- Museum of History of Polish Jews Introduction
- Yad Vashem: Search for Your Family
- Yad Vashem: Submit Names of Your Family Members
- Yad Vashem Requests Photos of Shoah Survivors and Families


CONTACTS

U.S.: LublinJewish@gmail.com