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The German Occupation and the Establishment of the Ghetto in Dąbrowa Górnicza

On 3 September 1939, the Germans occupied Dąbrowa Górnicza. In the space of a few days, they began kidnapping Jewish men for forced labor or detention. At the end of September, the Jews were compelled to wear an armband bearing a Star of David. On 8 October 1939, the Zaglębie district, including the town of Dąbrowa Górnicza, was annexed to the German Reich as a regional administrative unit called "Eastern Upper Silesia." In November 1939, a Judenrat was established in the town, headed by the merchant Isaac Burstein, subordinate to the Sosnowiec regional Judenrat (Zentrale) headed by Moshe Merin.

Jews conscripted for forced labor, Dąbrowa Górnicza. Right: Mendel Ostrovich.

Jews conscripted for forced labor, Dąbrowa Górnicza. Right: Mendel Ostrovich.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 1969/1

Jews conscripted for forced labor, Dąbrowa Górnicza. Right: Mendel Ostrovich.

Four Jewish youths and one young Jewish woman in Dąbrowa Górnicza during the war

Four Jewish youths and one young Jewish woman in Dąbrowa Górnicza during the war

Stanislawa Riskolski, who submitted the photograph, used to play with the individuals appearing in the picture, whose parents owned the bakery and convenience store in the town.

Yad Vashem Photo Archive, 7894/1

Four Jewish youths and one young Jewish woman in Dąbrowa Górnicza during the war

Beria, a friend of Hala Zalotnik (née Grinbaum), Dąbrowa Górnicza, 11 August 1942

Beria, a friend of Hala Zalotnik (née Grinbaum), Dąbrowa Górnicza, 11 August 1942

Yad Vashem Photo Archive, 8920/1

Beria, a friend of Hala Zalotnik (née Grinbaum), Dąbrowa Górnicza, 11 August 1942

Avramke, the cousin of Hala Grinbaum-Zalotnik, Dąbrowa Górnicza

Avramke, the cousin of Hala Grinbaum-Zalotnik, Dąbrowa Górnicza

On the back of the photograph, the following is written (in Polish): "Born 23 August 1940. Avramek Grinbaum, 45 Kwerstn Street, Dąbrowa, photographed on 10 January 1942. To my dearest sister, Hala, from your brother Avramke Grinbaum". Avramke was murdered during the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem Photo Archive, 8920/6

Avramke, the cousin of Hala Grinbaum-Zalotnik, Dąbrowa Górnicza

Jewish-Polish Relations in Dąbrowa Górnicza during World War II

Jewish-Polish Relations in Dąbrowa Górnicza during World War II

Deportation from Dąbrowa Górnicza to the Grünberg Labor Camp during the Holocaust

Deportation from Dąbrowa Górnicza to the Grünberg Labor Camp during the Holocaust

In December 1939, the Germans forced the Jewish Judenrat to pay a large ransom in gold, silver and cash. In order to secure the payment, the Germans took hostages and held them in a prison in Sosnowiec. A few months later, most of the Jewish stores were confiscated and their ownership was transferred to the German authorities.

At the end of 1939 or beginning of 1940, some 700 Jews deported from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Silesia were brought to Dąbrowa Górnicza, and the number of Jews in the town grew to about 6,300. At this time, hundreds of young Jews were conscripted for forced labor and sent to labor camps in Germany according to lists created by the Judenrat, under German orders. These deportations continued until the liquidation of the Jewish community in the town.

In 1940, an open ghetto was established in Dąbrowa Górnicza that encompassed Polna, Chopin and Okizeja Streets. Many Jews were forced to work in the city as well as in labor companies clearing the snow. Some 2,000 Jews from the town worked in factories established before the war in "Huta Bankowa" (the industrial zone of Dąbrowa Górnicza), manufacturing products for the German Army.

In October 1940, some 400 Jewish men were sent from the town to the Gross-Masselewitz camp (now in the Meuselwitz region of Germany, close to Leipzig). Before their departure, the deportees received aid packages from the central Judenrat in Sosnowiec. In November 1941, 450 young Jewish women were sent to a labor camp in Germany, and in March 1942 a group of Jewish factory owners from Sosnowiec was also deported.

In 1940, a public soup kitchen opened in Dąbrowa Górnicza, funded by the JSS (Jewish self-help organization) in Krakow, which served some 1,000 meals a day to Jewish laborers and their families. In the same period, a health clinic also opened, as well as a children's home run by two kindergarten teachers, which housed some 50 destitute children. At that time the ghetto was not yet sealed, and many of its residents would leave it for labor in the town every day. Consequently, conditions in Dąbrowa Górnicza were easier in comparison to other settlements in occupied Poland.

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