Memorial to the Victims of the Trawniki Labor and Concentration Camp

SUMMARY: In June 1942, the former sugar mill in Trawniki became a forced-labor camp for Jews. It was liquidated in September 1943 and from that point forward, the camp served as a sub-camp of the Lublin/Majdanek Death Camp. A list of the SS men at Trawniki is available here.

PRE-WAR: Trawniki is a village in Swidnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Trawniki. It lies approximately 33 km southeast of the regional capital, Lublin. According to witness Jozef K, born in 1925, there were about 30 Jewish families living in Trawniki before World War II. They were mainly traders. They lived near the Trawniki train
station, where they had their shops and also a synagogue. The nearest and only Jewish cemetery in all of the Trawniki gmina was in Biskupice, Poland.

HOLOCAUST: In 1942, Trawniki served as a transit camp for local Jews. After a "selection" was conducted by the Piaski Judenrat, several hundred Polish, German, and Austrian Jews were transported to Trawniki. Before the deportation to the Belzec killing center intended for the next day, many of the victims were locked up in a large barn overnight. Between 200 and 500 of the Jews died there from suffocation. The next morning, their bodies were put into wagons destined for Belzec.

During the summer of 1942, Trawniki began to serve as a forced-labor camp for Jews. The labor camp was built right next to the training camp for the Auxiliary police, called Trawniki men, created in 1941. Among the ghettos in which Trawniki-trained guards were deployed were Warsaw (three times), Czestochowa, Lublin, Lvov, Radom, Krakow, and Bialystok (twice).

At its beginning, the conditions in the camp were decent because the Nazis wanted to maintain a high production level, but that situation changed quite quickly. In winter, the workers did not receive any winter clothing, so epidemics became omnipresent and the general conditions in the camp deteriorated.

Known Transports: By May 1, 1942, there were at least 5,633 Jews in the Trawniki labor camp. They were Jews from Germany, Austria and Slovakia, but most of them were Polish Jews from across the country. Among the known transports:

-- 3,400 Jews Jews from Piaski ghetto on March 16, 1942;
-- 250 Jews from western Europe sent from Piaski ghetto to Trawniki in April 1942;
-- ~150 Jewish men (aged 25 to 45 years old) from Uchanie ghetto in March or April 1942;
-- ~30 Jewish women for washing, sorting and repairing clothes in June 1942;
-- unknown number of Jews from the Krasnystaw ghetto in summer, 1942;
-- unknown number of Brush factory laborers from Miedzyrzec Podlaski ghetto in November 1942;
-- unknown number of Jews from the Piaski ghetto in spring, 1943;
-- ~5,500 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto’s Schultz manufacturing plant in March of 1943;
-- unknown number of Jews from Sierpc ghetto In March or April of 1943;
-- 2,848 men, 2,397 women, and 388 children from Warsaw to Trawniki in 17 transports via truck/train between February 15 and April 30, 1943;
-- unknown number of Jews from the Minsk ghetto after its liquidation in September 1943.

On February 8, 1943, S.S. Odilo Globocnik signed a contract with Fritz Emil Schultz of F.W. Schultz and Co. The Schultz firm produced mattresses and furs, and repaired boots and uniforms. The contract provided that the Schultz fur production plant with its 4,000 Jewish workers and a brush-making plant with 1,500 more workers be transferred with all movable equipment and civilian personnel from the Warsaw ghetto to Trawniki. To manage the provision of forced laborers to the Schultz firm and to other firms located at other labor camps, the S.S. leadership founded a holding company, Ostindustrie GmbH (East Industries, Ltd.) on March 12, 1943. Among the prisoners were members of the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto.

After the uprising in the Sobibor killing center in October 1943, Himmler decided that to prevent any future revolts among Jewish prisoners from happening again, he needed to order the killings of Polish Jews in the Lublin District. On November 3, 1943, the Ernefeste Aktion commenced. Police units, SS, Trawniki men and Battalion 101 shot around 10,000 Jews from Trawniki and Dorohucza. Witness Jozef K., born in 1925, recalls that during the executions the Nazis turned on the radio to overpower the sound of gunshots. A group of Jewish workers from Milejow was chosen to burn the victims' corpses and to disperse the ashes. Once they finished, they were transferred to Lublin/Majdanek and the Trawniki labor camp was dissolved.

The following individuals were transferred to Trawniki or Biskupice, Lublin District, from another part of Europe for slave labor. All of them were Jewish and can be assumed to have been murdered.

Transferred to Trawniki
Ariela Adler
Johanna Aschner Lewy
Joan Ajzenberg
Jerzy Batlay
Chana Hania Batlay
Tami Bekman
Marta Bekman
Dr. Owsiej Bielenki (born 1884) from Warsaw
Szloma Birnbaum
Lea and Moshe Borstein (from Komarow/Zamosc)
Marien Brenska
Shoshona Chelemer Leizerowicz
Norbert and Mina Czaezkes (from Lwow)
Helene Chilf
Roza Damenstein
Norbert Dawidowski
Zdial Dawidowski
Benedikt Fell
Betty and Greta Feith (from Borken, Germany)
Henryk Feliks
Josef Frankenhaus (from Ahaus/Berlin, Germany)
Mala Rajzla Flajszer
Szama Flusfeder
Ilse Friedlaender
Zisha Frydman (from Sochaczew/Warsaw ghetto resistance)
Rabbi Moshe Goldblatt (from Ostrow Mazowiecka) and his 6 children
Moritz Glassner
Dr. Herman Goldbaum (born 1897) from Warsaw/Lodz
Heinrich and Tami Haas (from Ligsla)
Chaim and Leonora Halpern (from Tarnopol)
Karol Halpern
Dora Halpern
Friedel Heinz
Lieselotte Rosenbaum Heine (born in Forste in 1909)
Klara Herbst
Rudolf Herbst
Shlomo and Yetta Hercberg (from Zamosc)
Elisabeth Hirsh
Zendel Holender
Daniel Jungewirt (from Tarnow)
S. Kaner
Ida Marx Kaufmann (from Berlin, Germany)
Wlodzimierz Karko
Peter Kauffmann
Kathe Kern
Feliks Klajmic
Erna Klein
Father of Aron Kreshkovski (from Warsaw)
Moshe Leizerowicz, a journalist (from Warsaw)
Gertruda Lewin
Hanna Lewin
Wolf Lewin (later transferred out of the camp)
Rachela Lilienfeld
Rywka Meyer
Perla Meyer
Izaak and Rozalia Mingelgrin (from Brzesko)
Henryk Moscisker
Marian Neuteich, a conductor, master cellist and quartet player (photo)
Babette Pollak
Jakob Preschner
Alice Reichmann
Sabina Roth
Minke Segal
Oskar Suhl (born 1920 in Leipzig)
Dr. Moszek Icek Szer (born 1903) from Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski
Alfred and Adela Sznajder (from Kamiz)
Rabbi Kalonymus Szapiro
Gizela Szpigelglas
Jozef Szulfrid
Chaim and Fajga Sztark (from Lezko)
Dr. Wlodzimierz Szyfrys (Warsaw)
Zelig Tha(?)
Franziska That
Yaakov Trukenheim
Marceli Wachtel
Ludwig Wallach
Jakob Wechsler
Bernhard Weinstok
Eva Wajzer (Wajzor)
Fryderyka Wajzer (Wajzor)
Eliezer Wulfram
Antonia Wysoki-Kamien
Henrieta Wysoki-Kamien
Jerzy Wyzsogrod (Wysznogrod)

Note: Norbert Czaezkes (Lwow), Izaak Mingelgrin (Brzesko), Alfred Sznajder (Kamirz), Chaim Halpern (Tarnopol), Chaim Sztark (Leszko), and Henryk Haas (Ligsla) may have been sent from Trawniki to Biskupice.

Transferred to Biskupice, Lublin District (source)
Markus Barenhorn (Sewerany)
Meyer Baumol (Bukowsko)
Kohos Barenhersz (Rawa Ruska)
Schmuel Zneker Censor (Rzeszow)
Schaia Eichenbaum (Chrzanow)
Simcha Goldman (Tarnow)
Leiser Goldstein (Przemysl)
Edward Heisberger
David Newmann
Samson Juda Rad (Zolkew)
Julius Weisberger
Moses Weisberger

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