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{{Short description|Nazi ghetto in occupied Lithuania}} |
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'''Marcinkance Ghetto escape''' was a partially successful escape from [[Poland]]'s [[Marcinkance]] (now [[Lithuania]]'s [[Marcinkonys]]) [[Ghetto]] during [[German occupation of Poland in World War II]]. It was organized and led by the leadership of the Jewish community in the small town. |
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{{Infobox holocaust event |
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| name = Marcinkonys Ghetto |
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| image = |
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| caption = |
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| AKA = |
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| pushpin_map = Lithuania |
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| coordinates = {{Coord|54|03|40|N|24|24|0|E|display=inline,title|region:LT_type:landmark}} |
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| location = |
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| date = November 1941(spring 1942) to 2 November 1942 |
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| incident_type = Imprisonment, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, exile |
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| perpetrators = |
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| participants = |
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| organizations = |
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| camp = [[Treblinka]] and [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] |
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| ghetto = |
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| victims = ~200 |
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| survivors = |
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| witnesses = |
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| documentation = |
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| memorials = |
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| notes = |
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}} |
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'''Marcinkonys''' or '''Marcinkańce Ghetto''' was a small [[Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|Jewish ghetto]] established during [[the Holocaust]] in [[Marcinkonys]] (pre-war [[Second Polish Republic]], war-time [[Bezirk Bialystok]], post-war [[Lithuanian SSR]]). It existed from around November 1941 to November 1942 and housed 300 to 400 Jews.<ref name=ushmm/> |
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==Establishment and operation== |
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Up until [[November 2]], [[1942]], there were approximately 500 people living in the improvised ghetto in former forest-worker huts. The Jews were working in the local canning factory, formerly owned by a local Jewish businessman. They were also forced to perform other work, but compared to the ghettos in some of the larger cities life was somewhat easier. |
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According to a Lithuanian report of 26 July 1941, there were 324 Jews, including 50 children under the age of 6, living in Marcinkonys.<ref name=bubnys12/> Most likely in early November 1941 (other sources provide spring 1942 after the [[Passover]]),<ref name=koniu/> an order was given to establish the Jewish ghetto near the train station of the [[Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway]]. After bribes by the [[Judenrat]], the ghetto area was expanded from three houses to 14.<ref name=ushmm/> The ghetto covered the area of {{convert|1.5|ha}} surrounded by barbed wire<ref name=bubnys/> and housed several dozens of Jews from nearby towns and villages, including [[Rudnia (Kaniava)|Rudnia]], [[Kabeliai]], [[Valkininkai]], [[Butrimonys]], [[Varėna]].<ref name=ushmm/> |
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Living conditions inside the ghetto were better than in other Jewish ghettos.<ref name=ushmm/> The ghetto had its own small [[Jewish Ghetto Police|Jewish police]] force, commanded by Berke Aizenshtat. Most ghetto inmates were forced to work at the railway station, on the roads, in forestry, or in the mushroom-canning factory, but some managed to retain their pre-war trade.<ref name=ushmm/> In summer 1942, 70 Jewish survivors arrived at the ghetto bringing accounts of mass killings and other atrocities. That heightened the tensions and a group of young Jews planned to escape and join the [[Jewish partisans]]. The Judenrat even smuggled 12 guns into the ghetto.<ref name=ushmm/> |
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On November 2, the local German police received orders to liquidate the ghetto. All other ghettos in the area were also being liquidated around the same time. However, at Marcinkance, the local Jews had heard about the liquidation plans, as well as the horrible treatment on the Lithuanian site of the former Eastern Polish province. Therefore, the leadership of the Jewish community decided to avoid a similar fate. |
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== |
==Liquidation== |
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On 2 November 1942, orders were given to liquidate the ghetto and transport the Jews to [[Treblinka]] and [[Auschwitz concentration camp]]s. A squad of 15 Germans, under the command of Gendarmerie Hauptwachmeister Albert Wietzke,<ref name=ushmm/> ordered the Jews to gather at the entrance at 8am to be "transported for labor."<ref name=brown/> Witnesses present different accounts of further events. According to an official complaint written by forester Hans Lehmann, two of the Germans opened fire at the crowded Jews without a reasonable cause.<ref name=brown/> Other authors present the events as a revolt inspired by Aaron Kobrowski, chairman of the Judenrat.<ref name=gilb/> Panicked Jews attempted to escape through the fence into the nearby forest or back into the ghetto.<ref name=bubnys/> The Germans then searched the ghetto, shooting any Jews on sight and destroying five secret bunkers with grenades. In total, 105 or 132 Jews were shot.<ref name=brown/> |
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Over the next few weeks, Germans and local collaborators searched for the escaped Jews and about 90 to 100 Jews were killed.<ref name=ushmm/> A group of 21 Jews, including 7 women, were shot when their hideout near [[Musteika]] village was betrayed by a local man.<ref name=bubnys/> About 46 Jews survived the war, mostly as members of the Kobrowski partisan group, recognized as part of the Davidov brigade of the [[Soviet partisans]] in 1943.<ref name=ushmm/> |
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Local German police and some German forest-workers surrounded the fenced-in ghetto and demanded all of the occupants to assemble. When nothing happened, the Germans threatened to shoot. Aaron Kobrowski and several accomplices came out from the camp, wanting to talk to the leader of the group of Nazis. Aaron had a knife and a plan. However, the leader of the Nazis felt something was wrong and opened fire. The occupants of Marcinkance scrambled to escape but many Jewish men, women, and children were murdered. |
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Hans Lehmann, who had joined the [[Nazi Party]] in 1933, was investigated and it was determined that he was sympathetic to the Jews and allowed them to escape. He was discredited and transferred.<ref name=mcgaha/> In 1943, [[Jewish partisans]] derailed a German train east of [[Białystok]]. Lehmann was among the captured Germans. He was recognized by one of the escapees from Marcinkonys and executed for his role in the massacre.<ref name=brown/> |
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Some were able to escape, including some brothers and a sister of Aaron Kobrowski, and were able to survive and fight back in the surrounding woods for the next two years when they were liberated by the red army. |
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== |
==References== |
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{{reflist|refs= |
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* [http://www.kobrowski.com/kcfam.htm Kobrowski Family History] |
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<ref name=brown>{{cite book| title=Nazi policy, Jewish workers, German killers |first=Christopher R. |last=Browning |url=https://archive.org/details/nazipolicyjewish0000brow | url-access=registration |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-521-77490-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nazipolicyjewish0000brow/page/157 157]–160, 166}}</ref> |
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<ref name=bubnys>{{cite book |first=Arūnas |last=Bubnys |title=Holocaust in Lithuanian province in 1941 |publisher=The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania |url=http://www.komisija.lt/Files/www.komisija.lt/File/Tyrimu_baze/Naciu%20okupacija/Holokaustas%20Lietuvos%20provincijoje/Zydu%20persekiojimas/Pirmosios%20Karo%20dienos/ENG/A.Bubnys_Province_ENG.pdf |page=10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722152015/http://www.komisija.lt/Files/www.komisija.lt/File/Tyrimu_baze/Naciu%20okupacija/Holokaustas%20Lietuvos%20provincijoje/Zydu%20persekiojimas/Pirmosios%20Karo%20dienos/ENG/A.Bubnys_Province_ENG.pdf |archivedate=2011-07-22 }}</ref> |
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<ref name=bubnys12>{{cite journal|first=Arūnas |last=Bubnys |year=2012 |title=Holokaustas Alytaus apskrityje 1941 m. |url=http://gintarinesvajone.lt/2016/09/03/holokaustas-alytaus-apskrityje-1941-metais-2 |language=lt |volume=1 |issue=21 |journal=Genocidas Ir Rezistencija |issn=1392-3463}}</ref> |
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<ref name=gilb>{{cite book| title=The Holocaust: a history of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War |first=Martin |last=Gilbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnzcZ3qK4sMC&pg=PA489 |page=489 |edition=Reprint |publisher=Macmillan |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-8050-0348-2}}</ref> |
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<ref name=koniu>{{cite journal |first=L. |last=Koniuchowsky |title=The Liquidation of the Jews of Marcinkonis: A Collective Report |journal=Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptsTAAAAIAAJ&q=holiday+interfere |year=1953 |volume=8 |oclc=926494350 |page=213}}</ref> |
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<ref name=mcgaha>{{cite book| title=History in Dispute. The Holocaust, 1933–1945 |volume=11 |chapter=Willing Executioners |first=Richard |last=McGaha | url=http://holocaust.umd.umich.edu/news/uploads/HID_Ordinary_Men.pdf | editor=Tandy McConnell |publisher=Gale |year=2003 |pages=270–271 |isbn=978-1-55862-455-9}}</ref> |
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<ref name=ushmm>{{cite encyclopedia| first1=Katrin |last1=Reichelt |first2=Martin |last2=Dean |first3=Laura |last3=Crago |title=Marcinkańce |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945]]. Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe |publisher=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |year=2012 |volume=II, part A |isbn=978-0-253-00202-0 |pages=922–924 |
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}}</ref> |
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}} |
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[[Category:History of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic]] |
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| ⚫ | |||
{{Holocaust Lithuania}} |
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{{Portal bar|Lithuania|Germany|Judaism|genocide}} |
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[[Category:Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Lithuania]] |
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| ⚫ | |||
[[Category:Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland]] |
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Latest revision as of 12:36, 14 February 2024
| Marcinkonys Ghetto | |
|---|---|
  Location of Marcinkonys Ghetto within Lithuania | |
| Location | 54°03′40″N 24°24′0″E / 54.06111°N 24.40000°E |
| Date | November 1941(spring 1942) to 2 November 1942 |
| Incident type | Imprisonment, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, exile |
| Camp | Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camp |
| Victims | ~200 |
Marcinkonys or Marcinkańce Ghetto was a small Jewish ghetto established during the Holocaust in Marcinkonys (pre-war Second Polish Republic, war-time Bezirk Bialystok, post-war Lithuanian SSR). It existed from around November 1941 to November 1942 and housed 300 to 400 Jews.[1]
Establishment and operation
[edit]According to a Lithuanian report of 26 July 1941, there were 324 Jews, including 50 children under the age of 6, living in Marcinkonys.[2] Most likely in early November 1941 (other sources provide spring 1942 after the Passover),[3] an order was given to establish the Jewish ghetto near the train station of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway. After bribes by the Judenrat, the ghetto area was expanded from three houses to 14.[1] The ghetto covered the area of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) surrounded by barbed wire[4] and housed several dozens of Jews from nearby towns and villages, including Rudnia, Kabeliai, Valkininkai, Butrimonys, Varėna.[1]
Living conditions inside the ghetto were better than in other Jewish ghettos.[1] The ghetto had its own small Jewish police force, commanded by Berke Aizenshtat. Most ghetto inmates were forced to work at the railway station, on the roads, in forestry, or in the mushroom-canning factory, but some managed to retain their pre-war trade.[1] In summer 1942, 70 Jewish survivors arrived at the ghetto bringing accounts of mass killings and other atrocities. That heightened the tensions and a group of young Jews planned to escape and join the Jewish partisans. The Judenrat even smuggled 12 guns into the ghetto.[1]
Liquidation
[edit]On 2 November 1942, orders were given to liquidate the ghetto and transport the Jews to Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps. A squad of 15 Germans, under the command of Gendarmerie Hauptwachmeister Albert Wietzke,[1] ordered the Jews to gather at the entrance at 8am to be "transported for labor."[5] Witnesses present different accounts of further events. According to an official complaint written by forester Hans Lehmann, two of the Germans opened fire at the crowded Jews without a reasonable cause.[5] Other authors present the events as a revolt inspired by Aaron Kobrowski, chairman of the Judenrat.[6] Panicked Jews attempted to escape through the fence into the nearby forest or back into the ghetto.[4] The Germans then searched the ghetto, shooting any Jews on sight and destroying five secret bunkers with grenades. In total, 105 or 132 Jews were shot.[5]
Over the next few weeks, Germans and local collaborators searched for the escaped Jews and about 90 to 100 Jews were killed.[1] A group of 21 Jews, including 7 women, were shot when their hideout near Musteika village was betrayed by a local man.[4] About 46 Jews survived the war, mostly as members of the Kobrowski partisan group, recognized as part of the Davidov brigade of the Soviet partisans in 1943.[1]
Hans Lehmann, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1933, was investigated and it was determined that he was sympathetic to the Jews and allowed them to escape. He was discredited and transferred.[7] In 1943, Jewish partisans derailed a German train east of Białystok. Lehmann was among the captured Germans. He was recognized by one of the escapees from Marcinkonys and executed for his role in the massacre.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Reichelt, Katrin; Dean, Martin; Crago, Laura (2012). "Marcinkańce". Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe. Vol. II, part A. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 922–924. ISBN 978-0-253-00202-0.
- ^ Bubnys, Arūnas (2012). "Holokaustas Alytaus apskrityje 1941 m." Genocidas Ir Rezistencija (in Lithuanian). 1 (21). ISSN 1392-3463.
- ^ Koniuchowsky, L. (1953). "The Liquidation of the Jews of Marcinkonis: A Collective Report". Yivo Annual of Jewish Social Science. 8: 213. OCLC 926494350.
- ^ a b c Bubnys, Arūnas. Holocaust in Lithuanian province in 1941 (PDF). The International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22.
- ^ a b c d Browning, Christopher R. (2000). Nazi policy, Jewish workers, German killers. Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–160, 166. ISBN 978-0-521-77490-1.
- ^ Gilbert, Martin (1987). The Holocaust: a history of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War (Reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 489. ISBN 978-0-8050-0348-2.
- ^ McGaha, Richard (2003). "Willing Executioners". In Tandy McConnell (ed.). History in Dispute. The Holocaust, 1933–1945 (PDF). Vol. 11. Gale. pp. 270–271. ISBN 978-1-55862-455-9.
