Ghetto in Pabianice

Some information about the ghetto in Pabianice based on A. Gramsz "Calendarium of the time of German occupation”

I do not remember those times because at the period of liquidation of the ghetto I was just a month. About how it was, I got to know from late parents and e few publications.

My hometown occupation began on 8 September 1939. On Friday morning, from Rzgów to Pabianice drove a German motorcycle patrol. Two Germans stopped at the old town center and accidentally shot passing by the market, a young Jew named Fuks.

That was the beginning. Pabianice ghetto was founded in 8.02.1940 by order of the President of the police in Lodz Johannes Schafer. It was established in the old town of Pabianice in a relatively small area of cá 8 ha nominated as the following: from the North through the streets Topfergasse (Garncarska), Strickeldreherstrasse (Konopna) and Windmuhlenweg (Młynarska); from the East: Kapellenstrasse (Kapliczna) and Altestadtgrenze (Bóżniczna);from the West: Schulgasse (Sobieskiego and Maria Teresa Gasse (now Batorego). And from the South: Tuschinerstrasse (Piotra Skargi). Warszawska street (Warschauer Strasse) divided the ghetto into two parts: North and South.

The ghetto was not fenced and had an open character, but the entrance to the area was forbidden for Poles and Jews were threatened with death penalty for the attempt of going out of it. Boundaries of the ghetto were guarded and police officers kept watch over the Jews. German commander of the ghetto was a certain Szpera. I doint know nothing more closely about him, except the fact that he was probably one of the pre-war Pabianice Germans. The local supervision over the Ghetto was run by Hans Mayer and Theodor Kanwiszer. The Jewish Council of Elders established by the Germans, was initially led by certain Rubinstein and later from January 1942 by president Goldblum. The Council was established at the 24, Warschauer Strasse. On the order of Germans, the Jewish Community established in the ghetto manufacturing workshops called Economic Communities. Some of the inhabitants due to their professions also worked in factories outside the ghetto, for example, in Lask. Specific craftsmen could also work in their own homes, of course, on behalf of institutions or individuals in the so-called Aryan part of the city. All Jews from Pabianice and the nearby smaller towns and villages were shifted to the ghetto. In December 1940 the ghetto was inhabited by about 8 thousand Jews. In April 1942, all inhabitants of the ghetto underwent a medical examination after which they were on the body with the letters "A" (able to work) and "B" (unable). During this action in the ghetto`s hospital were killed about 200 Jews sick and dying of starvation. The other were located at 127, Warszawska street with intention for cleaning work. Most of these people were killed at 18th May during a brutal liquidation of the Jewish hospital in which for this "campaign" Germany destined just half an hour. During these "medical examinations” children under the age of 10 were stamped with the letter "B".
At May 16th, 1942 on Saturday ghetto was surrounded by troops and police SA. Liquidation of the ghetto began. Its inhabitants have been allowed to take only hand luggage collected from Treustadter Strasse (ulica Konstantynowska), from where they walked on the streets: Warszawska, Skromna(at present ulica Kardynala Wyszyńskiego) and Augusta street (at present Broniewskiego) under the escort to the stadium of Sport Association "Krusche &Ender. Officially it was announced that the Jews are gathered at the stadium in order to conduct the census. Gathered at the stadium, the Jewish inhabitants were beaten, humiliated and deprived of food for three days and two nights. My family lived less than a mile from the stadium at that time at Kammerun Strasse (Kamienna street), and could never forget how groans, cries and screams were heard from the stadium in those days.
At 17th and 18th May Jews gathered at the stadium were transported by trams to the Lodz ghetto including 1,082 women transported and relocated in the buildings at now non-existing 22, Masarska street in Bałuty district of Lodz.
At the stadium the repeated selection was carried on, and as a result of it some 4,000 people (children under 10 years, the elderly, the sick) of Category B were carried out on the railroad siding, near the Pabianice mill and in the cattle cars and were transported to the death camp at Chelmno over the Ner Reever. During the segregation some people have been shot in the stadium and the only Jewish doctor Świder committed suicide. After the liquidation, the ghetto in Pabianice, an old labor camp subjected to Gettoverwaltung Litzmanstadt located at Warszawska street functioned for a few months. Pictures of the camp you can see on my site at Panoramio and of course the Holocaust Museum archives. Commandant of that camp was a German of the name Seifert. He is seen on one of my photos, but I actually know nothing about him. In the camp at Warszawska street were employed 186 Jews who dealt with security, segregation and treatment of abandoned property in the ghetto. After completion of the work they were transferred to the ghetto in Lodz. Some survived the war, live abroad, but sometimes they come back to Pabianice. You can meet them on line in the information under "Pabianice ghetto". Do they come back to the days of the horror of occupation? No!!! only to a happy childhood and youth, they lived in Pabianice. Because it was a multicultural city and friendly to all its people up to the ... September 8th, 1939. Here is my story about the Pabianice ghetto. I think it is worthy of commemoration and I regret that the present inhabitants of Pabianice somehow are not aware of this need, at least those, who can do something in this case. As a man of Pabianice I feel ashamed that nothing is done to change it.

By Szczęsny Z. 8thApr2010

Translated by Maria-Elzbieta Sajenczuk, 9thApr2010