3-4-2023 The ghetto of Lvov

History assignment VWO 3

Leon Jansen
LODEWIJK COLLEGE HISTORY
Introduction:

In World War Two, there were more than 1000 Jewish ghettos. One of them, is the Ghetto of Lvov.
This ghetto is also named: the Lwów ghetto or the ghetto of Lemberg. Hundreds of thousands of
Jews have lived in this ghetto and there were only 823 survivors. In this report I am going to tell you
about the story of the Ghetto of Lvov. I am going to talk about the rise, being and liquidation of the
ghetto, and I will also tell the stories of some of the survivors.

What exactly is a ghetto? In World War Two a ghetto was a little town or city where Jews were
segregated from the rest of humanity. Around the ghettos were sometimes surrounded by big walls
with barbed wires. The living conditions in the ghettos were horrible, multiple families were
crammed into small houses. In the ghettos were a lot of diseases like typhus, cholera and dysentery.
The quality of water was bad and that is one of the reasons a lot of diseases were spread. Most of
the time there was a lack of food, and even if there was food, the quality of it was bad.

But why did the Nazi’s develop these ghettos? The ghettos are seen as one of the first steps of the
plan to erase the Jewish population in Europe. The Nazi’s used the ghettos to segregate the Jewish
population from the rest. Jews were forced out their houses and were transported to the ghettos. In
the ghettos, the Jews had their own Council called: the Judenrat. The Jewish Council was under
control of the schutzschaffel, better known as the SS. The life condition in the ghettos were
horrendous, many diseases spread, houses were overcrowded with families and there was a lack of
food. But the Germans didn’t care about the living conditions, because they were busy with
extermination of the Jews.

The first German concentration camp was set up in 1933, which is called Dachau. Dachau opened on
the 22nd of March 1933. This camp was initially used for political opponents of Hitler and was
eventually used for Jews and other peoples the Nazi’s prosecuted. In total, more than 1000
concentration have operated under the Nazi’s. The most famous concentration camp is “Auschwitz”.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that 1.1 million Jews were deported to
Auschwitz, and 960,000 of them have died in there.

The construction of a wall that will surround the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.

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Story:

The rise of the Lvov Ghetto:

Located in Eastern Poland, Lvov before the war was a multicultural city. Lvov was famous for its
culture and architecture. Before the war, there lived about 300,000 people in Lvov, having a big
Jewish community with 99,595 Jews. The Jewish community had a significant contribution to the city
its cultural and economic sector. The Jews were involved in a range of important industries in Lvov,
like textiles, brewing, and retail. There were a lot of Jewish-owned businesses that were among the
largest and most successful in the city. Culturally looking, there were a lot of Jewish writers, poets
and artists. There were also Jewish schools, libraries and synagogues.

The deportation process:

After Germany had occupied the city of Lvov on the 30th of June 1941, the horror began for the
Jewish inhabitants. In early July 1941, Ukrainian nationalists murdered about 4,000 Jews encouraged
by the German forces. In late July, the Petliura Days started. The “Petliura Days” was the second
pogrom against the Jews of Lvov in a short period of time. A pogrom is a violent attack against an
ethnic or religious group, often with the intent of killing, injuring, or intimidating its members. Most
pogroms are associated with the attacks on Jews. The name of the pogrom, Petliura Days, was
named after former Ukrainian leader Symon Petliura. In this pogrom at least 1,000 people were
killed in a period of three days. This program had more than 2,000 victims as a lot of Jews were also
robbed and assaulted. This pogrom was organized with German encouragement, also Ukrainian
militants from outside the city joined the pogrom.

In November of 1941 the Nazi’s established the ghetto of Lvov. The ghetto was located in the north
of the city. Within a month all Jews living in the city of Lvov had to move there. On the way to the
ghetto thousands of elderly and sick Jews were shot and killed by the German police. The most
common way of being transported to the ghetto was via a train. The cabins of the train were
overcrowded with people, there also was no water and food. Before even arriving at the ghetto, lots
of people had already died in the trains because of the inhumane conditions.

Map of the city of Lvov in 1941-1942

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The being of the Lvov ghetto:
From the 8th of November 1941 onwards, the Lvov ghetto was a hell for a lot of Jews. The Lvov
ghetto was a place of unimaginable suffering and brutality. Just like as in most ghettos, the living
conditions were horrible. The ghetto was a small area surrounded with high walls that were guarded
by the German army. Nobody should go in or out, except for if you were a Jew who was being
deported to a camp or a Jew who was being deported to the ghetto. The houses in the ghetto were
mostly overcrowded with people, there was a lack of food and clean drink water. And there also was
almost no medical care. The result of this was that many diseases like typhus, dysentery and
tuberculosis. Although, there were a few secret underground doctor clinics in the ghetto, but even
with those being there, the diseases were hard to cure because of lack of equipment. The death rate
was high, but that is not only because of the diseases; In the ghetto were still frequent acts of
violence towards the Jews by the Germans. Because of these bad conditions, some Jews even were
doubting their faith, was their God real? One of these people was Janina Heshele.

The story of Janina Heshele, a Jewish girl who lived in the ghetto of Lvov.
Because of all the bad things happening to the Jewish community, Janina doubts if her Jewish faith is
real. Here is a small part of the text she wrote down:
“I went to my sleeping place and asked myself if I should fast. I wasn’t sure. Fasting is a Jewish religious ritual, and I am a
Jewess. I didn’t want to think for too long or too deep about it, because I was afraid, I would start doubting God again. I
was convinced that faith in God brings along the hope for life. I decided to start fasting. After taking a shower the prisoners
start eating. On the tables are pans with soup, but no one takes even one bite. Ten men (a religious quorum for prayer)
enter. Urland (a Jewish policeman) locks the door, and the Jews start prayer service. A few women are taking sheets of
paper- the remains of prayer-books- and start reciting Jizkor (a prayer in remembrance of the Dead). Others repeat their
words, and everyone is crying. But looking at myself, I begin to be doubtful again and these doubts overwhelm me. Why
should I fast? Does God really exist? My earlier doubts return and crush my regained faith to shivers.”

The Judenrat:
Almost every ghetto the Nazi’s had established, they had implemented a Judenrat. But what is a
Judenrat? The Judenrat, also called: the Jewish council, was part of the strategy of the Nazi’s to
maintain control over the Jewish population in the ghetto. The Jewish Council was forced to
implement the Nazi policy in the ghetto. The Jewish council chairmen had to decide whether to
comply or refuse to comply with German orders to, for example, list names of Jews for deportation.
If you refused the order, unpleasant things would happen to you. In the Judenrat in Lvov, 1st
chairman of the Lvov ghetto Joseph
Parnes (Josef Parnas) refused to hand
over Jews that would be deported to
forced-labour camp Janowska. Because
of this refusal he was killed. After that his
follow up Adolf Rotfeld died as well, a
new chairman came: Henryk Landsberg.
Henryk was a lawyer and a respected
community figure before the war. Henryk
did not refuse the orders of the Nazi’s
and did what was asked from him. But
when a Jewish butcher opposing the SS
killed one of his persecutors, Landsberg
and several other Jewish policemen who
were employed by the Judenrat were
executed without trail. 6 Jewish man (including Landsberg) were publicly
executed.

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The Story of Louise Cale – Escaping the Lvov ghetto with fake papers.
Ludwika Friedhoffer, today known as Louise Cale, was born in 1933 in Lvov, Poland. Ludwika was one
of the many Jews who tried to escape the ghetto they were being held in, but she is one of the lucky
ones who actually escaped. If you were caught trying to escape, you were either killed right away or
sent to a concentration or extermination camp, where they were killed as well.
In 1941 Ludwika and her family were just like many other Jewish families in Poland, ordered by the
Nazi’s to move into the ghetto of Lvov. In 1942, Ludwika decided to escape from the ghetto and
went to Junka, a Jewish friend who was living under an assumed identity in Warsaw.
The next text is an interview with Ludwika held by Montreal Holocaust Museum:
Ludwika: “I told my aunt that we should absolutely escape the ghetto, that it will lead to no good that all over Europe the
ghettos were being finished and we knew what was happening. And she knew somebody who knew somebody who was
making false papers.”
Interviewer: “Do you remember the man's name?”
Ludwika: “No, all I remember is that he was quite old and he had like a little workshop in the ghetto.”
Interviewer: “Do you remember where?”
Ludwika: “In the same area where I lived maybe two streets away and it was a big secret but he did see us and it was so
simple it was really too simple, he said: what name would you like to have?”
Interviewer: “What name did you tell him?”
Ludwika: “I said a name that sounded very Aryan and very catholic: Alina Kozlovska. That's what I said, that's what he
wrote, he didn't have it ready right away, but he took the information. My aunt kept her name, she said: Josepha Wexler
that's what she wants to stay because ‘Wexler’ was a name that could have passed by.
We decided to go to Warsaw. A few days later I got my papers and I decided to go first and then I would meet my aunt at
Junka her place.”
Interviewer: “So you went from the ghetto to Junka?”
Ludwika: “I took the train, oh no I didn't go directly, at the night I went to one of the polish friends who was supposed to
bring me to the station.
So I went there and he put me in a room with a bed saying that in the morning he's going to bring me to the station and
suddenly the bombs started falling, everybody went downstairs to the cellar, and of course I couldn't go out. So, then I had
the first realization god I hope the bomb falls and I don't have to go through all this because I knew it won't be easy and I
might be caught any minute. So anyway, the bombs were falling but nothing happened to me.
In the morning he took me to the station he said: you're on your own from now on. I had the ticket in my hand, my hair
was dyed blonde, but I still was Jewish in my eyes you could see it, but I had to live and I heard already before that some
people trying to escape were taken off the train by the conductor and given away to the authorities from the train. So, I
walked in, and I said: well, this is my chance, I walked in, and I was holding the ticket in my hand, and I said oh, it's nice
finally I’m having this adventure. There was a couple sitting there and I said to them: “I’m so excited!” And then my ticket
fell I picked it up and I said: “would you hold it for me? Because knowing myself I know I might lose it.” I don't know if she
wanted to believe me or if she was kind-hearted woman and she took my ticket, she said: “okay I’ll show it to the
conductor.” So, when the conductor walked in, he thought I was related to them all. And that's how I made it you see!

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The liquidation of the Lvov ghetto:
On June 16th, 1943, the final liquidation of the Lvov ghetto took place. The beginning of the
liquidation is the 16th of March 1942, because from then on Jews got systematically deported from
the ghetto to either extermination, concentration or forced labour camps.

The deportation to the camps:

The ghetto of Lvov was one of the first ghettos which started deporting Jews to death camps like
Belzec. The main way of transport that was used were trains. The first step that was taken was
selection. Because most Jews who lived in the ghetto were registered selection wasn’t very hard.
During selections, Jews are chosen for transport to extermination camps. Jews who were able to
work sometimes weren’t taken to Belzec but to the Janowska concentration camp where they did
heavy labour. Between 16 March and 1 April 1942, at least 15,000 Jews were taken away from the
ghetto and transported to Belzec, Belzec was one of the worst extermination camps that was
established by the Nazi’s. Because of the deportations, executions and death by diseases in that
period, about 86,000 officially recorded Jews remained, although there were many more not
recorded. On 24–25 June 1942, 2,000 Jews were taken to the Janowska labour camp, but only 120 of
these Jews were used as workers, the others all got shot. In August 1942, about 50,000 Jews were
sent to the Belzec camp. After that deportation, about 65,000 registered and many unregistered
Jews remained with a cold winter coming with no heating or sanitation, the result of this diseases
like typhus having an outbreak. On November 18, 5,000 Jews were arrested and deported to Belzec.
In December the Nazi’s had what they called: the ‘December campaign.’ In this campaign 7,000 Jews
were killed. Between 5 and 7 January 1943, another 20,000 Jews, including the last members of the
Judenrat, were shot outside of the town on the orders of Fritz Katzmann, this operation was named:
the Piaski tract. After this the Judenrat wasn’t a thing anymore. The ghetto got redesigned into a
labour camp, named: Judenlager Lemberg. In this labour camp were about 12,000 Jews registered.

The final liquidation of the Lvov ghetto:

At the start of June in 1943, the Nazi’s decided that they wanted to put an end to the ghetto of Lvov,
and all its inhabitants. When the Nazi’s entered the ghetto, they were attacked by armed Jews. The
Jews had Molotov cocktails and grenades. In this armed attack, 9 Germans got killed and 20 were
wounded. The last remaining 4,000 prisoners were deported to the Janowska camp and were there
killed. But there were still Jews hiding in prepared hiding spots in the ghetto. The Nazi’s burned
down most buildings to kill the last hiding Jews. There were a few Jews who escaped and some who
went into the sewer system trying to survive. After the liquidation the Germans declared Lvov
“Judenfrei”, which meant free of Jews.

Train full of Jews who are getting deported.

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Conclusion:
The ghetto of Lvov was seen as a place of unimaginable suffering and brutality. There were only very
few people of the hundreds of thousands that have lived there who managed to survive. The ghetto
of Lvov was one of the bigger by the Nazi’s made ghetto in Poland. The living conditions in the
ghetto were horrific and inhumane. So many innocent people who had their own faith were
executed for what they believed in. People were getting executed when there wasn’t even a good
reason to do it. It is estimated that more than 250,000 Jews have been killed in the Lvov ghetto or
the camps they were deported to. Such a big part from the European Jewish population got erased
from the Earth and it should never be forgotten. All the victims should be remembered and people
who risked their lives to save another person’s life should be praised. This kind of persecution of
peoples should never happen again. The ghetto of Lvov is seen as a tragic symbol of the horrors of
the Holocaust and the systematic persecution and extermination of European Jews by the Nazis
during World War Two.

Today, we remember the victims of the Lvov Ghetto and the millions of others who died in the
Holocaust by never forgetting the horrors they experienced and by striving to build a world free
from hatred and intolerance.

Memorial of the Lvov ghetto

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Voices from the ghetto

Text from Janina Heshele named: Janina Heshele in the ghetto of Lvov. Page 45.
Original source: Voices from the dark, page 69-70.