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Vawkavysk Ghetto
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Vawkavysk Ghetto
The Vawkavysk Ghetto (also known as the Wołkowysk Ghetto, Volkovysk Ghetto, or Vaŭkavysk Ghetto) was established in Vawkavysk, in what is now Belarus in the summer of 1941, lasting until January 1943. More than 10,000 people were killed in the ghetto.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Vawkavysk, then part of the Second Polish Republic, was home to 5,130 Jews. From the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941 to 28 June, the city was bombed by the Luftwaffe, destroying the city's Jewish quarter and killing hundreds of Jews.
Antisemitic murders began instantly; the Jewish population (along with political commissars) was separated from others within the city's prisoner of war camp and executed upon the city's occupation by German forces. Mass arrests of Jewish citizens also began on the same day. On the fourth day of the occupation, the Germans raided houses, abducted two hundred Jews, and executed them.
Also immediately following the occupation of Vawkavysk, all Jews were required to wear yellow badges, sew stars of David to the front and back of their clothes, and draw yellow circles on their house doors. Jews were additionally forbidden to walk on the sidewalks or buy certain foods, such as meat. All healthy Jews were obliged to work in forced labour, at first clearing the rubble left by the city's bombing.
By the summer of 1941, the area which had once been the Jewish quarter had been transformed into a ghetto. A Judenrat in the city was established, consisting of ten people. Its head was Dr. Isaac Weinberg, and his deputy was Yakov Sedeletsky.
Jews who could not, or did not work at the beginning of the occupation could pay off their labour service for five Reichsmarks a day. This policy was used to determine the wealth of Jews within the ghetto. The ghetto was guarded at all times by German guards, as well as members of the Polish Blue Police, Belarusian Auxiliary Police, and Jewish Ghetto Police.
Before long, a state of famine descended upon the ghetto, which was exploited by German authorities. Jewish property was confiscated in exchange for food, and the Judenrat continued to carry the obligation to collect taxes, as well as periodically searching and confiscating ghetto property. Forced labour was used heavily, particularly in the construction of the Vawkavysk-Białystok highway.
A small resistance, led by Weinberg, existed within the ghetto, and had ties to the Belarusian partisans. After a partisan was wounded, Weinberg went to his assistance. After his resistance was revealed to the Germans by a traitor among the partisans, Weinberg, along with 11 other doctors and several engineers, was executed. He was replaced as head of the Judenrat by Noy Fogs.
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Vawkavysk Ghetto
The Vawkavysk Ghetto (also known as the Wołkowysk Ghetto, Volkovysk Ghetto, or Vaŭkavysk Ghetto) was established in Vawkavysk, in what is now Belarus in the summer of 1941, lasting until January 1943. More than 10,000 people were killed in the ghetto.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, Vawkavysk, then part of the Second Polish Republic, was home to 5,130 Jews. From the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941 to 28 June, the city was bombed by the Luftwaffe, destroying the city's Jewish quarter and killing hundreds of Jews.
Antisemitic murders began instantly; the Jewish population (along with political commissars) was separated from others within the city's prisoner of war camp and executed upon the city's occupation by German forces. Mass arrests of Jewish citizens also began on the same day. On the fourth day of the occupation, the Germans raided houses, abducted two hundred Jews, and executed them.
Also immediately following the occupation of Vawkavysk, all Jews were required to wear yellow badges, sew stars of David to the front and back of their clothes, and draw yellow circles on their house doors. Jews were additionally forbidden to walk on the sidewalks or buy certain foods, such as meat. All healthy Jews were obliged to work in forced labour, at first clearing the rubble left by the city's bombing.
By the summer of 1941, the area which had once been the Jewish quarter had been transformed into a ghetto. A Judenrat in the city was established, consisting of ten people. Its head was Dr. Isaac Weinberg, and his deputy was Yakov Sedeletsky.
Jews who could not, or did not work at the beginning of the occupation could pay off their labour service for five Reichsmarks a day. This policy was used to determine the wealth of Jews within the ghetto. The ghetto was guarded at all times by German guards, as well as members of the Polish Blue Police, Belarusian Auxiliary Police, and Jewish Ghetto Police.
Before long, a state of famine descended upon the ghetto, which was exploited by German authorities. Jewish property was confiscated in exchange for food, and the Judenrat continued to carry the obligation to collect taxes, as well as periodically searching and confiscating ghetto property. Forced labour was used heavily, particularly in the construction of the Vawkavysk-Białystok highway.
A small resistance, led by Weinberg, existed within the ghetto, and had ties to the Belarusian partisans. After a partisan was wounded, Weinberg went to his assistance. After his resistance was revealed to the Germans by a traitor among the partisans, Weinberg, along with 11 other doctors and several engineers, was executed. He was replaced as head of the Judenrat by Noy Fogs.
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