NEARBY JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Jewish communities near Zamosc included: Labunie (25 Jews in 1939), Mokre (10 Jews), Sitaniec (60 Jews), and Zwierzyniec (1,000-1,500 Jews). Additional information is available about nearby Jewish communities, as follows:

- Miączyn: In 1921, there were 217 Jews in Miączyn district.

- Mołodziatycze: In 1921, there were 231 Jews in Mołodziatycze district. A census conducted by the Polish government in 1921 recorded 231 Jews living in 24 villages which belonged to the Mołodziatycze municipality. According to this census, 73 Jews lived in Mołodziatycze, the capital village of the municipality. According to historian Tatiana Berenstein, on the eve of the war, between 239 to 246 Jews were listed as residents in the municipality. During March 1942, 285 Jews lived in the municipality. In May, 1942, 600 Jews from Krakow were transported to the area around Grabowiec, including in Mołodziatycze district. the Jews of the Mołodziatycze Municipality were concentrated in the village's capital, Mołodziatycze, and from there transported to Grabowiec about 12 kilometers west, by horse-drawn wagons and/or by foot. In Grabowiec, the Jews from the Mołodziatycze Municipality shared the fate of the local Jewish population who, after being squeezed into the local ghetto, were deported to Sobibór annihilation camp on June 8, 1942. No Jews from the district survived the Holocaust.

- Werbkowice: In 1921, there were 164 Jews in Werbkowice district.

THE HOLOCAUST IN ZAMOSC

After a few days of heavy bombardment, which especially damaged the Jewish quarter, the German Army entered Zamosc on September 14, 1939. Immediately after capturing the city, Nazis organized a series of pogroms, motivated by the desire to loot Jewish property. On September 26, 1939, the Soviet army entered the city, but handed the city back to the Germans two weeks later, in accordance with the new Soviet-German
demarcation line. Around 5,000 Jews left the city at the point the Soviet Army withdrew. The remaining
Jewish population suffered brutality and persecutions.

Several labor camps were set up in the Zamosc area. These included: 1) A camp at Karolowka farm, mostly for women, that operated between late 1941 and May 1943. They worked on farms to supply fruits to the Wehrmacht. They also were tasked with sorting the items in the deserted Jewish quarter after the last Jews of Zamosc were deported in October 1942; 2) In mid-1941, at the end of Zdanowskiej Street, a camp under the Water Management office was created in which prisoners worked on marsh lands near the Labunka River. The camp was liquidated in 1943; 3) In June 1940, a forced labor camp was erected in the Janowice district. Every day, several hundred Jewish workers came there from Zamosc. In March, 1942 200 Jews from Izbica -- from Czechoslovakia -- were forced into labor at this camp. There were 300 workers total. Hans Pienkowski administered this camp. Prisoners carried out work on the adaptation of the camp to military barracks, and after the aggression of Germany on the USSR at the construction of a cavalry training center consisting of a stable, a riding school, a barracks and a veterinary building. On October 16, 1942, during the liquidation of the ghetto in Zamosc, the Jewish workers from Janowice were deported. Soviet prisoners were brought in their place. Soon, however, presumably due to unsatisfactory progress in the work, the Germans brought back to the Jewish camp again. The liquidation of the camp took place in the spring of 1943; 4) 350 Zamosc Jews were also sent to "Kawaler," the remnants of the former Russian fortress in Zamosc, for slave labor, starting in spring 1940. Jews from Zolkiewka, Warsaw, Otwock, Falenica and Glowna along with Zamosc Jews worked on water-works near the Labunka River at this camp. It was located on Lukasinskiego Street. In the autumn of 1940, a group of about 150 Jews from Belzec were brought to the camp. Walter Ruppert was the commander of the camp. On May 31, 1943 about 400 prisoners concentrated in the camp were taken to Majdanek. Two hiding Jews were shot on the spot. The camp ceased to exist.

Other labor camps in the Zamosc area where Jews were sent were: Bortatycze (water works), Klemensow (agricultural labor), Labunie (airport construction), Mokre (agricultural labor), Ploskie Glowne (construction), Turkowice (water works), and Zdanow (airport construction). In 1941, German Luftwaffe began to build airfields at Mokre and Labunie, near Zamosc. Jewish labor was used in the construction. Groups of workers from Zamosc were also sent to other labor camps in the Lublin district, including Wysokie Labor Camp (in June, 1940, 500 Jews from Zamosc were sent there) and the camps previously listed. More than 200 Jews from Zamosc were sent to Bialobrzegi in central Poland where they worked in agriculture, digging and drainage. Also, around 600 Jewish men from Zamosc were displaced to the Bortatycze Labor Camp in June of 1940. This was a drainage camp where the workers suffered horrific conditions. By that year in October, around 300 Jews were still at the camp. In November, 1940 the labor camp was liquidated and the few survivors were redirected back to Zamosc. In summer, 1940, an additional 474 Jews from Zamosc were sent to the Belzec Labor Camp (later Belzec Death Camp) south of the city. In mid-August of 1940, another 26 Jews were deported to Belzec Labor Camp by Police Battalion 104.

An incomplete listing of deportations and transports from Zamosc is as follows:

Nazi S.S. Heinrich Himmler decided that the area around Zamosc would be the first large area of German settlement in Poland. The Germans hoped that within ten years about 3 million Germans would settle in the territory administrated exclusively by the Nazi S.S. In October 1939, the Nazis selected a Judenrat and forced it to pay a ‘contribution’ of 100,000 zlotys ($20,000 in US dollars) and the daily delivery of 250 Jews for hard labor. In December 1939 several hundred Jews expelled from Lodz, Kalo, and Wloclawek in western Poland were settled in Zamosc. In 1941, an open ghetto was established around Hrubieszowska Street, and the first deportation from the city took place on the eve of Passover, 1942 (April 11). The entire Jewish population was ordered to gather in the city's market, whereupon gunfire was directed at the crowd killing hundreds on the spot. About 3,000 Jews were forced to board waiting trains which took them to the Belzec Death Camp. From May 1-3, 1942, about 3,000 Jews from Dortmund, Germany and from Czechoslovakia were deported to Zamosc. A deportation including Jews from these areas as well as Zamosc and nearby towns were sent to Sobibor Death Camp on May 15-16, 1942, or Belzec Death Camp in six separate transfers in which 13,850 souls were sent to die.

Members of the Judenrat in Zamosc included Bronsztajn, Eliyahu Epstein, Baruch Fiszelson, Mendel "Mieczyslaw" Garfinkiel, Julian Goldsztein, Stanislaw Hernhut, Bencion Lubliner, Lejb Rozenman, Azriel Szeps, Aron Szlafrok, Icek Dawid Szlam, Shulim Tiszberg, and Baruch Wilder. Jewish police and other local collaborators with the Nazis, who rounded up and murdered Jews, are listed here.

The final group living in the Zamosc Ghetto was marched to nearby Izbica on October 16-18, 1942. Many were shot on the way. From Izbica, they were sent on transports to the Belzec and Sobibor Death Camps. In this deportation, Jews offered passive resistance and hundreds went into hiding in prepared shelters. The Nazis brought in Polish firemen to open the shelters by destroying the walls and removing other obstacles. Several hundred Jews were discovered in hiding and imprisoned for eight days in the city's cinema hall without food or water; subsequently, all those who were still alive were brought to the Jewish cemetery and executed. A few hundred Jews were able to escape to the surrounding forests. Most of them crossed the Bug River, made contact with Soviet guerrillas in the Polesie forest, and joined various local partisan groups. By May, 1943 all Jews left in the ghetto in Zamosc and in forced labor camps in the vicinity -- numbering around 1,000 Jews -- were murdered at the Majdanek Camp.

The Germans also evacuated 300 villages in the Zamosc district, uprooting 110,000 Polish peasants to make room for S.S. men and Volksdeutsche to settle in the vacated areas. Approximately 10,000 non-Jews perished during this course of ethnic cleansing. Those evacuated by force were sent to camps in Zamosc Zwierzyniec, or Warsaw. A number of transports were sent to concentration camps such as Auschwitz or Majdanek. More than 50,000 Poles were deported to the Reich for forced labor from the Zamosc region, during 1942 and 1943. There was resistance, called the Zamosc Uprising.

The Nazis in charge of carrying out the deportations and murders in Zamosc are listed here.

WHAT REMAINS

There are two Jewish cemeteries in Zamosc. The original cemetery was set up at the end of the 17th century and located at Partyzantow Street. The last burial took place in 1941. During the Holocaust, the Nazis completely destroyed it. The “Province Culture House” was constructed on top of the desecrated remains of our Jewish ancestors. A second Jewish cemetery was established in 1907 and was destroyed in the Holocaust. Fragments of numerous tombstones remain, dating only as far back as 1934. In 1950, Zamosc Shoah survivors erected a monument and a lapidary made of tombstones and parts left from the Jewish cemeteries of the city. On the monument is a plaque with the inscription "Thou shall not kill". In 1991, a metal fence was constructed around it.

The synagogue built in 1872 was destroyed during the Holocaust, reconstructed in 1948 and was used as a pre-school. The current building of the former small synagogue is used by the Pentecostal Church in Zamosc.

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[Zamosc - Partial List of Murder Victims] [Great Synagogue]
[List of Pre-War Zamosc Immigration] [Nazi S.S. in Zamosc]
[Zamosc — Additional Photos] [The German Military in Zamosc, 1939–1944]
[Order Police and the Extermination of the Jews in the Zamosc Region]
[Yizkor book Translation (English) for Zamosc] [Zamosc Jewish Graduates]
[Zamosc Class Photos] [Family Research in Southeast Poland]
[Resources for Finding Your Family] [Israeli Organization of Zamosc Jewry]
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Former Zamoscer Organizations:
Zamoscher Society, New York
First Zamoscher Congregation Bikur Cholim, Flushing, NY
Zamosc Progressive Society, New York
Zamoscher Progressive Young Men 375 Workman's Circle, Elmont, New York
Zamoscher Beneficial Association, Progressive Young Men of Philadelphia
Friends of Zamosc, Philadelphia
Zamostcher Relief Committee
Montreal Zamoscher Society, Canada
Zamoscher Yiskor Book Committee, Argentina
Zamoscher Yisker Book Committee, Argentina
Zamostcher Relief Committee, Argentina
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