Menora monument to the victims of the Kielce ghetto. Photo: jankarski.org.pl

Joint prayers are being held in the southern town of Kielce, Sunday, to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in 1942.

The prayer ceremony is to take place at the city’s Menora memorial to the ghetto victims on Sunday evening.

“We will also remember the Righteous among the Nations – people who came from our region, and who risked their lives by saving Jews during World War II,” informs Bogdan Bialek, head of the Jan Karski Association, the organiser of the ceremony.

The liquidation of the Kielce ghetto was performed in three stages. On 20 August, 1942, SS and Ukrainian formations entered the one of the ghetto districts and gave residents 30 minutes to pack one item of personal luggage.

Jewish Ghetto Police units started to pull people out of their homes, with stragglers being shot in the head by Nazi-led units. On the first day of the ghetto liquidation, about 7,000 Jews were tranported to the Treblinka extermination camp.

The second stage occurred two days later, on 22 August, when SS units murdered children from the orphange, with the extermination of the sick at the hospital and elderly at the old people’s home a day later. The third stage took place on the 24 August with the murder of pregnant women and a number of the Jewish Ghetto Police.

In all, 21,000 Jews were forced out of the Kielce ghetto, with 1,500 people murdered during its liquidation. The former ghetto was then used as a barracks for 2,000 forced labourers before being sent to other camps.

400 people survived the liquidation, including 18 Jews from Vienna. (jb)

Source: PAP

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