Remember Jewish Ostrow Lubelski

Pronunciation: Ost-rov Loob-ell-skee

HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

Ostrów lies 41 kilometers (25.5 miles) northeast of Lublin.

The Jewish community in Ostrow Lubelski existed since the early 1600s. In fact, the oldest surviving mention of three Jewish householders residing in Ostrów dates back to 1565. Beginning in the 16th century, a synagogue was operational in Ostrow Lubelski. In 1876, a new synagogue was built after the previous one was destroyed. This synagogue operated until the Holocaust, when it was destroyed. In the early 1600s, a Jewish cemetery was established along the road leading to the village of Bójki (currently Batalionów Chłopskich Street at the intersection with Unicka Street).

According to data from 1676, 60 adherents of the Jewish faith resided in Ostrów. By 1764, there were 34 Jewish households. According to data from 1856, there were 851 Jews constituting 33% of the town's population. And by the end of the century, in 1897, this number had risen to 3,221 (which was 53% of the total). The Jewish population resided primarily in the town center, specifically in the Market Square, as well as along the following streets: 3 Maja, Ministra Pierackiego, Floriańska, Żabia, Garbarska, Szlachtuzowa, Przejazd, and Lubartowska, and also at Plac Wolności.

The Jewish Community in Ostrów Lubelski’s list of employees in 1930 included Rabbi D. Nelkenbaum, S.M. Kohn (ritual slaughterer), B. Zunszajn (ritual slaughterer), Sz. Zunszajn (ritual slaughterer), and H. Oliwka (grave-digger). In the interwar period, there was a ritual bath (mikveh) in Ostrów Lubelski. In 1922, private houses of prayer also operated within the town, owned by Moszek Lederman, Motel Grinberg, and Srul Kron. Jews were active in commerce, particularly in the trade of horses, cattle, and hides as well as in crafts. Numerous Jewish tailoring and shoemaking workshops, along with many Jewish bakeries, operated in the town.

NEARBY JEWISH COMMUNITIES

The Ostrów Jewish community encompassed over a dozen surrounding localities, including the villages of Bobryk, Drozdówka, Głębokie, Bolechowice, Krasne, and Zamoście; in 1920, the kahal (community council) in Ostrów comprised a total of approximately 4,500 adherents of the Jewish faith. It is unclear how many Jews lived in each of these villages.

In nearby Sosnowica, the Jewish community operated a house of prayer, a cemetery, and a mikveh. Sosnowica had a pre-war Jewish population of around 300. (Note: This location is different than Sosnowiec.)

OSTROW LUBELSKI DURING THE HOLOCAUST

The Jewish population in 1939 was 1,994.

The Judenrat was established in October of 1939 and about 850 Jews from Lubartow was dispatched to Ostrow Lubelski in November of 1939. Other transports to the Ostrow Lubelski ghetto included 851 Jews from the Poznan region in mid-December 1940, 200 Jews from Lublin in March of 1941 and 500 Jews from Slovakia in April of 1942. According to data from August of 1941, a total of 3,249 Jews were living in Ostrów. Some of them found shelter in the synagogue and houses of prayer, while around 400 of them were soon after deported to labor camps in the vicinity.

Isidor “Józef” Flanter (or Flatner) was Judenrat chair. By 1941, a 13-member Jewish police force also had been established, led by Mendel Zyman. The Ostrów branch of the Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) was led by Poznan deportee Emil Hecht.

On April 13-15, 1942, as part of Operation Reinhard, 307 Slovak Jews, mainly women and small children, were deported (via Lubartow) to Ostrów Lubelski ghetto. There was an additional transport of 300 Jews from Slovakia between May 27-29, 1942, also via Lubartow. In May of 1942, the population in the ghetto was 3,062 Jews. In the summer of 1942, the Germans carried out an execution in which 50 people were murdered. By September, German officials noted 3,250 Jews resided in Ostrów.

On October 7 or 10, 1942, a group of S.S., S.S. Ukrainian auxiliaries, and German Gendarmes ordered the Jews assembled at the market square. A ghetto-clearing force went house to house, searching for those hiding. The postwar Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) Court Inquiries about Executions, Mass Graves, Camps, and Ghettos (ASG) documentation indicates that 50 Jews were killed for refusing to heed the assembly order. About 30 deemed too frail to march to Lubartów were brought to the synagogue to await transfer by peasant cart. Some Jews were also shot dead at the synagogue.

On October 7, 1942, the liquidation of the ghetto took place. The sick and infirm, as well as Jews attempting to hide in their homes, were murdered on the spot by the Nazis. All others — approximately 3,200 Jews — were driven on foot to the railway station in Lubartów. From there, they were deported, together with Jews from Lubartów, Kamionka, and Tarłów (and likely also from nearby Firlej), to the extermination camps at both Treblinka and Sobibór.

JEWISH PARTISANS

In November, 1942, there were around 18 separate hunts for Jews in the forests surrounding Parczew. In Białka village, 96 men were killed in December 1942 after the local Polish population was caught helping Jewish partisans.

WHAT REMAINS

The location of the destroyed synagogue is not known. Josef Cynowiec, Holocaust survivor, mentions in his testimony the antisemitism of prominent Ostrów Poles, including the local Roman Catholic priest, diminished chances for Jewish survival.

The Jewish cemetery is located at Batalionow Chlopskich Street, near Unicka Street. It was established in the early 1600s and destroyed in the Holocaust. No material traces remain.

Zachor - We Remember. Please review the site content below.
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[Ostrow Lubelski Yizkor Book - Translation]
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