Remember Jewish Janow Lubelski

Pronunciation: Yanov Loo-belsky

HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

Janow Lubelski is a city in southeast Poland near to Krasnik and south and west of Lublin.

In the 16th century, Yaakov ben Yitzchak Ashkenazi, author of the "Tsenah u'Re'enah", lived in Janow Lubelski. A traveler reported in 1678 that the Jews there owned especially well-built houses. In 1770, Jewish bakers and butchers were prohibited from selling bread or meat to non-Jews, and in general from trading outside the Jewish area. There were 390 Jewish families in 1765 and 2,881 Jewish individuals who made up 44.8% of the total population of the town.

Janow Lubelski features in the short stories by of Isaac Bashevis Singer, including "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy", "Naftali the Storyteller and His Horse Sus", "The Beggar Said So", and "The Brooch." Several left-wing political activists were active in Janow Lubelski, including Nusym Beserman, Chaim Jagierhorn or Jagierman, Zachariasz Mussman, Symch Bron, Israel Kron and Moszko Greber.

Jewish community employees in 1926 included Icek Majer Broder, rabbi; Yaakov Icek Gelertner; Golda Lipszyc (a widow); Josef Majer Lewenkopf; Aron Szyja Kotlarski; Moszek Buchbinder; Mordko Frydman; Chil Klaperman; and Icek Glikman, janitor.

Before the war, commerce in the city included the following individuals: A. Feferkorn, soap factory; M. Kaminer, machine shop; Wolf Fink, printing house; Judka Taublib; oil mill; Moszek Szryf, oil mill; Szymon Ziss, tannery; Dawid Mussman, saw mill near Modliborzyce; Lejb Sambor, agriculture.

NEARBY JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Nearby Jewish communities included: Chrzanow (123 Jews), Modliborzyce (1,200 Jews), Potok Stany (25 Jews), Potok Wielki (25 Jews), Szastarka (10 Jews) and Zaklikow (2,000 Jews). Additional information is available about some of these communities, as follows:

- Batorz: In Batorz, R. Borensztajn, J. Feferkichen, A. Obermajster, M. Bursztyn, and W. Bron had shops prior to the Holocaust. According to Project MUSE, "The evidence is insufficient to determine whether ghettos were established in Batorz, Kosin, or Gościeradów — communities for which almost no documentation has survived.” There appeared to be a Judenrat in Batorz, indicating the liklihood that a ghetto existed in the community. Shoah survivor Ruth Zysberg’s testimony may be instrumental to understanding what happened there.

During the Holocaust, Józef W., a resident of Blinów (near Batorz), gave shelter to three Jews — two men and a woman — from Batorz. In unknown circumstances, the Jews were captured, taken to the outskirts of the village and shot. The bodies of the victims were buried next to a roadside cross, where they rest to this day. A Jewish veterinarian, Dawid, was hiding with them, but managed to escape at the last moment. He was then murdered by the Germans in Kraśnik (source). Also in Batorz, Teodozja Nieściur (nee Tylus), age 15, hid Leib, a poor Jewish man, without her parents’ knowledge in one of the Tylus family’s farm outbuildings. “He hid up in the attic gable, which was packed with straw,” she recounts. “He never came out of there; I would bring him food—the very same meals prepared for our own family. He also had a bucket of water up there, as well as a bucket for his sanitary needs.” After the war, Leib got married. Later, he emigrated to the United States.

- Biala: Z. Erlich and a sawmill in Biala.

- Chrzanow: The pre-war Jewish community consisted of 123 Jews. In Chrzanow, B. Rotenberg resided and M. Milsztain ran a goods store; H. Hamer was a shoemaker; and M. Jarmul had a wind mill.

- Godziszow: In Godziszow, J. Buchnat was a blacksmith.

- Kaweczyn: In Kaweczyn, Z. Erlichster ran a hardwood store and Egiert ran a food store.

- Modliborzyce: In Modliborzyce, tailor ships were run by F. Ingler, Sz. Bron, Ch. Waksbojm, and J. Milichman. For additional information on the Jewish community of Modliborzyce, visit Remember Jewish Modliborzyce.

- Wolka Batorska: M. Regmunt had a mill in Wolka Batorska.

In 1929, a listing of Jewish workers in Janow Lubelskie is here. Additionally, a list of Jewish voters in town is available here.

In the Janow Lubelski district in 1921, there were 13,407 Jews, representing 10 percent of the whole. According to the census of 1931, there were 15,317 Jews in the Janow Lubelski district. By 1939, the total Jewish population of Janow Lubelski was between 3,500 and 5,000 in 1939.

JANOW LUBELSKI DURING THE HOLOCAUST

Throughout late 1939, after the German invasion, many Jews from Janow Lubelski became refugees when their houses were looted and taken from them. Some of them went to nearby Krasnik.

In the second half of 1940, a county committee for Jewish self-help organization was created in Janow Lubelski, as in the other country seats. The committee consisted of five members: Maks Kaminer, Simkha Frajberg and Leib Fabrikant from Janow Lubelski, Simkha Kohan from Krasnik, and Chaim Kirszenfeld from Modliborzyce.

In March 1941, a few hundred Jews from Vienna were deported to Janow Lubelski.

The German occupation authorities established the ghetto in September of 1941, concentrating local Jews into a specific, overcrowded area of the town. Life in the ghetto was marked by extreme overcrowding, starvation, and strict prohibitions against leaving, enforced by the German police and S.S.

In May of 1942, there was a deportation of 4,500 Jews from the Janow Lubelski ghetto were sent to the Belzec Death Camp. In August 1942, many remaining Jews in the Janow Lubelski ghetto were sent to Zaklikow and Krasnik, from which they were then sent to Belzec in later transports. On November 10, 1942, the remaining 900 Jews in the Janow Lubelski ghetto were dispatched to Belzec Death Camp. At this point, the ghetto ceased to exist and all Jews in the Janow Lubelski ghetto had been murdered.

In 1942, mass executions of Jews were carried out at the Jewish cemetery, near the prison and at the synagogue. Jews were brought to the execution sites on farmer's carts or on trucks guarded by the police. Then they were forced to dig their own graves before being murdered. Around 300 Jews were murdered at the Jewish cemetery and the number murdered at other locales in town is not known.

SLAVE LABOR CAMPS NEAR JANOW LUBELSKIE

Jews from Janow Lubelski were transported to other locations within the Lublin district such as Krasnik, Tarnogrod, and Lublin.

A series of slave labor camps were set up in the area in and around Janow Lubelski. These labor camps included: Bialska camp in Janow Lubelski, Budzyn, Janiszow, Lysakow, Skret (Krasnik), and Zaklikow. All slave labor camps were brutal, and Jews dispatched to these camps rarely made it out alive. There also may have been slave labor camps at Chrzanow, Frampol and Wierzchowiska although nothing is known about them.

- Janow Lubelskie Labor Camp: After the occupation of Janow by the Nazis, in 1940, about 1,000 Jews were confined to a labor camp established at Bialska Street. They were tasked with clearing rubble, dismantling burned houses, and loading debris onto carts.

- Lysakow-Kolonia Labor Camp: The labor camp Lysakow-Kolonia had around 500 Jews employed in irrigation works and land/forestry operations. Jews from Janow Lubelskie and Modliborzyce were both deported to Lysakow Labor Camp, where they were eventually murdered.

- Skret Labor Camp: The Arbeitslager Skret (Skret Labor Camp), sometimes known as the WIFO Labor Camp, was a forced labor camp for Jewish people located in the Kraśnik Ghetto on Szkolna and Bóżnicza streets during the Holocaust. Operating between 1942-1944, it held approximately 3,000 inmates, most of whom were murdered. The camp was situated in the Jewish residential area (ghetto) established by German forces. The area was characterized by severe overcrowding and poor sanitation before liquidation.

JEWISH PARTISANS IN JANOW LUBELSKI FORESTS

The Jewish partisan movement was very active in the Janow Lubelski area because of the dense forests that provided cover for Jews seeking refuge from the Nazi murderers. Abraham Bron, partisan name Adolf, operated a unit that had 40 persons around Krasnik, where the Budzyn and Krasnik (Skret) Labor Camps were located, by the end of 1942. This group was among the most successful partisan groups in all of Europe in terms of achievement. The Bron partisan group set up a family camp in the forests in which Jewish elderly, women, and children could stay under the protection of the partisan fighters. Unfortunately, despite significant successes, very few of the Bron partisans ended up surviving, due in part to betrayal from their own allies in the Polish army.

The Tadeusz Kosciuszko unit was a mixed unit including Dr. Jozef Szapiro, a leader in pre-war Krasnik, and Ciencow, a Russian non-Jew. Non-Jews in the unit also included Jan Plowas, Edward Plowas, Stefan Staregowski, Edward Gronczewski, Jan Pytl, and Jan Wzietek. This was a left-wing unit which successfully liberated the Janiszow Labor Camp near Annopol on November 6, 1942. Although all of the prisoners were free to leave the camp, they had no resources such as food and arms, and many were either caught and killed or caught and sent to the Budzyn Labor Camp. Around 60 prisoners successfully escaped, but were eventually attacked and murdered by armed Polish groups. Peter Ignar (or Ignat), the camp's brutal Nazi commandant, was executed.

Two other partisan groups in the Janow Lubelski area were the Janowski and Wanda Wasilewska units, which included several dozen Jews among many Russians. Additional Jewish partisan groups in the area, which we are missing information about, included: a Jewish partisan unit from Frampol that had escaped from the ghetto; a group under Yaakov Freitag that had escaped from the village of Reczyca in Pulawy County; a group under Reuven Yehoshua Pintele's leadership; a group that escaped from Majdanek or Lipowa 7 under the leadership of a partisan named Robert; and several non-Jewish Polish fighting groups. Robert's Majdanek escapees carried out a successful ambush on the road near Bychawa, attacking two trucks carrying gendarmes, on October 15, 1942. In July of 1942, Armia Ludowa partisan detachment "Jastrzab" led by Antoni Palen burned a sawmill and lumber depot in Janowek, near Janow Lubelski. Few of the Jewish partisans ended up surviving the war.

NAZIS PERPETRATORS IN JANOW LUBELSKI

Nazis in Janow Lubelski included: Karl Streibel, Otto Stoessenreuther, Henning von Winterfeld, Hans Adolf Asbach, Becker, Brandt, Derban, Hans Kurt Lenk, Müller, Reinhard, Restan and Zeis. Kurt Lenk was killed in 1944 by partisans and von Winterfeld was killed in 1945. The other’s fates are not known.

WHAT REMAINS

Jewish cemeteries were established in Janow Lubelski in 1661 and in the 1820s. The first cemetery was near 3 Maja Street. The second was founded at Przborow street (now called Wojska Polskiego) and was larger. There is no trace of either cemetery today.

Sources indicate that there were several synagogues in town, including one located near Wojska Polskiego Street and another located between 3 Maja St. and Pilsudski Street. The synagogues were set on fire and destroyed.

Of around 5,000 pre-war Jews in Janow Lubelski, the vast majority were murdered. It is unclear how many survived the duration of the war, but the number is under 50.

Zachor - We Remember. Please review the site content below.
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[Books about Lublin District Jewish Communities]
[Jewish cemetery] [Jewish Partisans in Poland's Lublin District]
[Krasnik Holocaust Survivors - partial listing]
[Lublin Area Jewish Descendancy Organizations in Israel]
[Resources for Finding Your Jewish Family in the Lublin District]
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