When my good friend, and part-time investigator in Moscow, walking in the park showed me where, whom and how the maniac Pichuzhkin (Bitsevsky maniac) killed, I was rather uncomfortable. But I wonder, especially since evil is eventually punished. However, what I experienced while walking around the Polish city of Lodz can only be called tin. Imagine a whole army of Bitsevsky maniacs that entered your city with one goal - to kill. Cut you all out like sheep, let rivers of blood flow through these streets. You have no one to rely on, no one will save you, and the living will envy the dead. All these houses have seen suffering and death, and they have been standing for more than 70 years in the form in which their inhabitants left them. There are many versions of why a large part of Poland's third largest city still looks so nightmarish to this day. Many locals say that these apartments have a bad aura, no one wants to live here. The fact remains - in this city in 1939-1944 there was a natural hell, which can only be dreamed of in the most nightmare.
Before the war, Lodz was the most developed and wealthy city in Poland, one of the largest industrial centers of the country, and also the third most important (after Warsaw and Krakow) as a cultural and political center. All this was put to an end in an instant, on September 1, 1939, when the German army attacked Poland and a few days later Wehrmacht soldiers marched into Lodz. Everyone had a bad time, but especially the local Jews, who were about 250 thousand people in Lodz, or about 30% of the city's population. Already on September 18, the Germans took away the entire business owned by Jews, including a large part of the city's manufactories, shops, hotels, tenement houses. From the same day, Jews were forbidden to withdraw their funds from bank accounts. Actually, from that moment it became clear that an unenviable fate awaited the Jews, and some of them left the part of Poland occupied by the Germans and fled; who in that part of Poland that chopped off Soviet Union(as we remember, the bilateral occupation of Poland was the result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact), who in the then still free Czechoslovakia.
Those who did not have time to escape within the first month after the arrival of the Germans signed their own death warrant, since on October 28, 1939, Jews were forbidden to appear in the city center and a curfew was introduced. Anyone who was caught on the street after seven in the evening was shot on the spot. Then it went on increasing: in February 1940, the forcible eviction of Jews from their apartments and resettlement began in northern part a city where a new area was actively fenced off with stone walls, where all the Jews were resettled. Needless to say about the hellish conditions of life in the ghetto: no heating, no water, nothing. Everything was off. Complete lack of sanitation and hunger. Actually, the ghetto was created for this, so that people would not survive the winter. Nevertheless, the ghetto existed for four years before the Germans decided to completely liquidate it and send the surviving Jews to concentration camps. By this time, about a third of the 230 thousand people who lived there, from starvation and disease, died. But it was in the ghetto, behind high walls.
And in other parts of Lodz, among the Poles, life somehow glimmered. People went to work, bought groceries in the store (although by 1943 the Poles had begun to starve), gave birth to children, and could even leave the city. In fact, the city hasn't changed much since then.
But behind the wall, things were very different. Today in Lodz there is not even a hint of a ghetto wall. Only these things in the ground, indicating where the wall passed. You and I are going to a place where, some 70 years ago, there was only one way to get out - in the form of a corpse.
It is noteworthy that this church in the photo was inside the ghetto. Why? In many ways, this shows the attitude of the Germans towards religion in general. Even before the creation of the ghetto, the Germans turned the current church into a police station. The Gestapo was here. But soon they moved the Gestapo to another place (I will show it to you a little later), and here they placed the Jewish police. Yes, yes, the Germans created the Jewish police in the ghetto, the so-called "Judenrat", which was responsible for maintaining order in the ghetto. The Germans preferred not to go inside the perimeter without the need. The Jews themselves kept order, preventing any attempts to raise an uprising, or even simply express dissatisfaction. This is a separate and very sad page. Jewish history and you can read about it on the Internet, enter "Judenrat" in the search.
This big house on the right was empty for some time, and it was strange, given the nightmarish cramped conditions in which people lived in the ghetto. Just imagine: 230 thousand people in an area measuring 3 by 2 kilometers. So, as a result, several thousand (!) Jews brought here from Czechoslovakia settled in this and a couple of neighboring buildings. People huddled 7-10 people in each room -
I wanted to buy some water. I went into this Tesco supermarket and only then read that in this white building, where there was a cinema before the war, the Germans settled Jews brought in from Hamburg. How many people, by eye, can live in this building? You will be surprised, but a lot -
All these miserable houses were packed with people, sleeping everywhere, even in the toilet and in the attic. In winter, it was a matter of survival; at sub-zero temperatures, only staying in a closed room right next to each other could save you from frostbite. All these trees were planted after the war. In cold winters, dying people cut down absolutely all the trees in order to somehow warm themselves, stoking stoves -
Pay attention to this house and street -
Now take a look at the photo from 1940. Since a tram line ran through the ghetto, and Jews were not supposed to use trams, the street was closed for Jews, linking the two parts of the ghetto with several bridges. One of them was right next to this building -
And here is the building that terrified the prisoners of the ghetto. It was called "Red House", or "Kripo". The latter stands for criminal police, actually the Gestapo. All those who were caught trying to escape, illegal trade (an attempt to exchange watches with the Poles for a loaf of bread led to execution), any form of disobedience, got here. I emphasize that the bulk of the Jews killed here got into this building through the Jewish police, the Judenrat, who performed a considerable part of the dirty work for the Germans to control the ghetto -
Another building with a dark history. Until 1941, it was a market, but then the Germans closed it and turned it into a place for mass executions -
Oh, and any employee of the Russian Federal Migration Service will envy the work in this building! This is the Passport and Statistical Office of the Lodz Ghetto. Here they kept records of the living, dead, born, arrived, and left. In the latter case, as you understand, it was only possible to leave for Auschwitz. Imagine how the aunts from the passport offices would like to send us to the gas chambers so that they don’t fool their heads with their passports. And then it was easy to work: a baby was born, they didn’t inform (hoping that the baby would survive and if they didn’t find out about him) - execution! The dream of a passport officer, she would have appropriated your property. What a shame, damn it, times are not the same, officials think. The people in these offices don't change, I'm sure of that -
The Main Directorate of the Jewish Police and the chief commissioner, Leon Rosenblat, also sat here. He was a worthy man, honest, correct. Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps for slaughter, hoping that the property taken from them could be appropriated. It didn't work out. He was sent in 1944 after other Jews -
Here he is, the main Jewish ghetto policeman, on the right -
However, Rosenblatt was far from the main executioner of his own people. The ghetto was led by another person, Chaim Rumkovsky, who at first commanded the Judenrat and only then became the actual "mayor" of the ghetto. Like all leaders of the Judenrats, Rumkowski veered between trying to preserve the Jewish population of the ghetto and following orders from the Nazis. Of course, he did not forget about himself beloved. In Israel, the personality of Rumkovsky is extremely controversial, since he actively collaborated with the Nazis and handed over to them a lot of Jewish underground workers, and in addition, in fact, he took away from the inhabitants of the ghetto and appropriated their housing and property.
Rumkowski believed that the diligent work of the Jews in favor of the occupying authorities would avoid the destruction of the ghetto and in every possible way attracted people to hard labor in exchange for food. In fact, Jews worked in factories that supplied the German army with clothing, footwear, spare parts for tanks, and so on.
In September 1942, when the Nazis ordered that Jewish children be handed over to be sent to a death camp (children and the elderly were killed first, because they could not work), Rumkovsky delivered a campaign speech to the residents of the ghetto with a refrain demanding that the children be given in a good way, threatening to otherwise involve the Gestapo. He is trying to convince people that at the cost of the lives of children it will be possible to save the lives of many other prisoners of the ghetto. It is noteworthy that Rumkowski was eventually sent to Auschwitz along with other prisoners.
A pleasant park, called Piastovsky. Today it is nice to walk here, sit on a bench. It is best to sit here on those benches that are visible in the photo. Sitting on them, you could watch the executions. Right here, from where I photograph, there were gallows and every day the next unfortunate people were pulled up on them. Right here, yes, where an aunt with a girl just passed -
This is the ghetto detention center, where the Jewish police kept the detainees. Actually, rarely anyone managed to get out of this building alive. They write that some managed to pay off. But most of them went from here to the Germans, and then there was only one way - to a concentration camp. And the building is so nothing, strong, out, even people live in it and put a satellite dish to watch a lot of foreign channels -
The ghetto consisted of several hundred similar houses -
There used to be a hospital here, but I don't know what it is now.
Did you notice that the streets are paved? Since then -
This building with amazing graffiti is terrible for gypsies -
The fact is that the Germans allocated this and several other buildings of the ghetto for the gypsies. A stone wall separated the Gypsy part of the ghetto from the Jewish part. About 5,000 gypsies lived here and they were all sent to a concentration camp, where they died -
When I stopped in front of this gloomy building, an elderly uncle suddenly approached me and asked if I was a journalist. I said no, but I'm interested. And he told me that this place is cursed. According to him, in 1941 there was a shop here. Well, you yourself understand what a store in a ghetto is like, where people were dying of hunger. Bread on cards. So, there was always a line, day and night. And once the Germans came here, they chose 20 people from the crowd and shot them right here, in front of the entrance. This is because some Jew managed to escape from the ghetto. So the Germans taught people to discipline and order, so that in the future they would not decide to remain silent if someone was going to run away.
Since then, according to the uncle, numerous shops and offices have opened and closed here. But the place is cursed, nothing functioned here and in the end they decided to just wall it up -
Friends, do you know what kind of pieces of iron on the wall of the building? There are a lot of these on old houses -
Amazingly, the entrances have not changed at all since the war -
I'm not impressionable, but I was uncomfortable. You guessed it right, I climbed into the same accursed building in which people were shot. Here, meanwhile, people live. A couple of apartments are inhabited by homeless people -
And here, in general, it seems that everything has been done to preserve the memory of horrors to the smallest detail. This building housed Polish children whose parents were shot for partisanship. The Germans sent such children here, to the ghetto, and kept the children separate from the Jews, behind a fence. But if you think that children survived, then you are mistaken. Most of them were used to pump out the blood required by the wounded soldiers of the Wehrmacht arriving from the eastern front.
The irony of life and fate is that now in this terrible place where the blood was pumped out of children, there is a hotel for dogs -
Most tourists... although Lodz is far from being a tourist city, and even walking through the gloomy devastation in the former ghetto is of interest to absolute maniacs like me. Well, most tourists are brought here, to a place called "Radegast" on the outskirts of the city. It is generally accepted that this is the most terrible place in Lodz, because this is the name of the railway station, from where the surviving prisoners of the ghetto left on their last journey -
The place is scary, that's for sure. But life in the ghetto is no less terrible, where even before being sent to the crematorium, people died of hunger, disease, executions, and torture. Many went to the concentration camp being so broken that they even felt some kind of liberation in the form of imminent death -
Last call and off we go. On the last journey -
And this is a memorial at the station -
Near the station there is a huge cemetery, by the way, the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. It contains almost 150,000 graves, most of which were destroyed by the Nazis, but quite a few have survived. I’ll tell you about the cemetery in a separate article, but for now, pay attention to this mausoleum and remember the name - Poznansky. The man's name was Israel Poznansky, and I will also tell about him separately -
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Why did the German authorities need to create a ghetto for all the Jews of Europe? The German authorities cited various arguments in favor of the creation of a ghetto: to combat profiteering; to put an end to the spread of defeatist political rumors; to limit the spread of contagious diseases that originate in the Jews, and even to protect the Jews from the hostility of the local population.
All of these claims were unfounded. In fact, the Jews of the occupied countries did not have the slightest opportunity to inflict economic damage on Germany. On the contrary, the existence of the ghetto helped the development of the underground economy, since a smuggling trade in products and goods arose between the ghetto and the outside world. As for the problem of contagious diseases that arose among Jews as a result of the difficult living conditions under the occupation regime, the closed ghetto was not at all a way to exterminate or localize them, but, on the contrary, led to their even greater spread. Thus, it is clear that the real goal of the authorities was to isolate the Jews from the surrounding population, based on ideological and bureaucratic intentions. The ghetto was another stage in the anti-Jewish policy that had consistently developed since the beginning of the war. The Germans did not see any difficulties with the creation of a ghetto on the territory of Belarus, as can be seen from the memorandum of A. Rosenberg, due to the “presence of entire Jewish communities and settlements, which makes it especially simple.”
With the creation of the ghetto, the racist theory became a reality: the Jews, to whom the Nazi concept did not assign a place in human society, were indeed isolated from it.
On September 21, 1939, an order was issued by the chief of the RSHA, R. Heydrich, on the creation of special Jewish quarters (“ghettos”) in cities near major railway stations, where Jews were resettled from the surrounding countryside. This was preparatory plan destruction of the Jewish people. It was then that the term "final solution" was first mentioned. Preparations for the implementation of this plan were carried out during 1939-1941, that is, before the German attack on the USSR. The first ghetto was created in October 1939. The time and terms of the creation of the ghetto were different, their appearance must be considered as a lengthy process.
From the first days of the war in the occupied territory of Belarus, the Nazis began to create ghettos in cities and towns - isolated parts of the city set aside for Jews to live. A more complete definition of this concept is given in the encyclopedia of the Republic of Belarus: “Ghettos are territories set aside for the forced settlement of people on racial, professional, religious and other grounds”. A. Rosenberg's memorandum "Instructions for the Resolution of the Jewish Question" emphasized that "the first main goal of German measures taken in this matter should be the strictest separation of Jews from the rest of the population. ... All rights to freedom must be taken away from the Jews, they must be placed in a ghetto.
The ghettos were part of the occupation regime, the policy of racism and genocide. In Belarus, at the end of July - beginning of August 1941, the first ghettos appeared (in the literature their number is determined in different ways, from 70 to 120). In the work of E. Ioffe it is indicated that on the territory of 153 settlements There were 163 ghettos in Belarus.
In total, on the territory of Belarus, within the borders of June 22, 1941, the Nazis created more than 250 ghettos. According to the estimates of E. S. Rosenblat, 211 ghettos were organized in Western Belarus alone.
On the territory of the general district "Belarus" (Reichskommissariat "Ostland"), one of the first ghettos was created in Minsk by order of the field commandant of July 19, 1941. It was the largest ghetto in terms of numbers (more than 80,000 prisoners), which lasted about 27 months.
In addition, there are reasons to single out such a concept as “ghetto within a ghetto”, due to the presence of local and deported Jews on the same territory. In general, 3 ghettos are distinguished in Minsk: the “Big Ghetto” existed from August 1941 to 10/21-23/1943 (39 streets and alleys in the area of Jubilee Square). "Small" ghetto - was located in the area of the Molotov plant (now the Lenin plant) from 1941 until the end of June 1944 and of Eastern Europe. It existed from November 1941 to September 1943. In addition, these Jews were called "Hamburg" because most of them came from Germany. Thus, representatives of three different groups of the Jewish population ended up in one ghetto, each with its own native language (Russian, Yiddish and German), culture and worldview. It should be noted that most of the Soviet Jews of Minsk largely lost their traditional Jewish mentality (with the exception of the older generation), while the refugees from Western Belarus were more enterprising and enterprising, which was an important factor survival in the ghetto. Knowledge of the language and contacts with German administrative personnel of various levels gave the prisoners a certain chance for salvation.
The creation of the ghetto was carried out by the military commandant's offices, the security police and the SD, and the Einsatzgruppen. Their activities were organized according to a certain pattern: upon entering any city or town, they immediately established with the help of local residents the names of rabbis and the most famous members of the Jewish community and demanded that they collect the entire Jewish population for registration and sending to the "Jewish region" . The Jews, unaware of the true intentions of the Nazis, obeyed the orders of the invaders. They were herded behind barbed wire, the ghetto.
The order for the SS cavalry brigade No. 8 dated September 28, 1941 noted that the creation of a ghetto was possible if it was not possible to liquidate the Jews immediately.
In the western regions of Belarus (which were part of the Reich Commissariat "Ukraine"), a ghetto was not formally created, but the Jewish population (after registration and appropriate designation, as well as the creation of Jewish councils) was actually deprived of freedom of movement (a ban on moving outside work columns, appearing in certain neighborhoods and even leave their homes). It was intensively used in forced labor, subjected to collective indemnities. This situation persisted (with some exceptions) until the end of 1941 - beginning of 1942, when the plan and pace of the "final solution" was still under discussion. Some ghettos on the territory of Belarus (Minsk, Bialystok, Brest, Pinsk, Glubokoe and some others) can be classified as typical for Eastern Europe. The Judenrats were active here with numerous staff members, including the Jewish police; in the ghetto and the cities themselves, industries were organized where forced labor of the Jewish population was actively used.
Ghettos were organized, first of all, in cities, regional centers, places near railways, rivers. Jews who survived after the extermination actions from the countryside were also resettled there (most often only professional artisans with their families). The tendency of the concentration of the Jewish population in medium and large cities and the resettlement was carried out not with the aim of eliminating the Jewish population, but in order to use them professional opportunities. Usually, separate families, not exceeding a few dozen people, moved. However, this order sometimes applied to Jewish communities numbering at least several hundred people. Thus, in Western Belarus, the invaders made a unique attempt to create a Jewish city ("Judenstadt") in Pruzhany. Several thousand Jews from 14 settlements were resettled here. Jews from 42 cities, towns and villages were sent to the Glubokoe ghetto. It became a kind of Jewish center.
A necessary condition for the organization of the ghetto was the obligatory registration of all Jews. Passports were changed for people, replacing them with German "Ausweiss", with the obligatory mark "Jude". In parallel with this, the questionnaires were filled in with photographs attached and children under 14 were included.
Terms for resettlement, as a rule, were set in a few days. Five days were allotted for resettlement in the Minsk ghetto. In Borisov, an unrealistic period was given for resettlement - 1 day. Two weeks were given in the Palace. Sometimes the resettlement was stretched for a longer period.
All ghettos can be conditionally divided into two main types: "open" and "closed". The first of them (without the physical isolation of Jews in a guarded quarter or premises) was of a temporary nature, until they were destroyed or until they were moved to a "closed" ghetto, deported, or sent to labor camps.
Prisoners of the "open" ghetto most often remained in their homes. The Nazis considered it inappropriate to evict and then protect the inhabitants.
In places where security was weaker, Jews could trade with the local population, and Jewish artisans could go to work in the villages with their own tools and earn their family a living. The policy of moderate coercion in small ghettos was explained by the limited number of local police forces, which did not allow for constant surveillance, as well as the absence of barbed wire (for example, the ghetto in Slonim).
Large ghettos were more closed. good example This is confirmed by the Dvoretsky ghetto: “At first, the ghetto had an “open type” regime: prisoners were allowed to leave the ghetto, but they were required to appear for evening verification. All able-bodied prisoners had to work. Most often, Jews worked on loading, removing rubble from the former Soviet airfield near the village of Vasevichi, on strengthening and repairing the canvas railway Baranovichi - Lida. In the fall of 1942, the ghetto was transferred to a "reinforced" regime. The convoy was increased, the replenishment of the convoys arrived from Latvia and Lithuania. Residents of the ghetto were forbidden to leave the zone. They were taken to work under reinforced escort. Jews were banned from contact with the local population.
The ghettos in Novogrudok and Osipovichi were also open.
The creation of "closed" ghettos was aimed at resettling all Jews in a certain place: a quarter, a street or a building. Its external sign was a fence, which was installed by the forces of the Jews themselves and at their expense. Exit and entry into the ghetto was possible only through one or more checkpoints, which were guarded from the outside and inside.
Conclusion in the ghetto only preceded the total extermination of the Jewish population. It was a link in the chain of thoughtful measures, another step that brought millions of people closer to destruction. From the ghetto it was more convenient to lead to execution, in the ghetto it was easier to control all sections of the population, in the ghetto the separation of those capable of resistance from the helpless children and the elderly was carried out.
Each ghetto was fenced and guarded in its own way: either a fence with barbed wire, or brick wall or a deaf wooden fence. For example, in Brest, wire fences from 1.5 m were erected, and in Baranovichi their height reached 2.5 meters. The barriers were erected by the forces of the prisoners and at their expense, as in Novogrudok. where, through the efforts of 100 people, 28 houses were fenced off, or by prisoners and local residents, as in Brest.
The area and boundaries of the ghetto were not fixed: when people were taken out of it, the ghetto was narrowed.
Around the ghetto, special ten-meter zones were established, in which all objects were demolished and construction, storage of goods, planting trees and shrubs were prohibited. Entry and exit from the ghetto could only be through one or more checkpoints, which were guarded from the outside and inside policemen. The protection of the Brest ghetto was carried out by the local Ukrainian and Jewish police, "but both of them, as the witness notes, were equally cruel." Basically, many prisoners confirm that apart from clubs, the Jewish police did not have any weapons. “They didn’t do home visits. They had lists, and they knew who lived where,” says a young prisoner of the Brest ghetto.
From witness testimony it is clear that there were ghettos that were not guarded. “On March 9, 1942, changes began in the life of Smolyan, when the Jews were herded into the ghetto on Shklovskaya Street. Here, in about 30 houses, from 700 to 840 Jews lived. They were only surrounded by barbed wire, and there was a "soft" mode of living in them. This regime is also due to the fact that Jews who fled from Minsk, Borisov, Orsha, Dubrovo came there.
The occupying authorities sought to tear the Jews away from the outside world, to limit the possibility of living in their familiar environment. For this purpose, prohibitions were introduced: it was forbidden to buy food, walk on the sidewalks, talk loudly - in a word, everything reminiscent of human existence and dignity was forbidden. Teacher David Pliskin from metro station Glubokoe paid a fine of 500 rubles just for eating a few raspberries from a forest bush. A complete list of prohibitions can be found in the directive of G. Lohse, Reichskommissar of Ostland dated 08/13/1941.
When creating a ghetto, the Germans often resorted to their favorite provocative method: the division into two ghettos. In the second ghetto, as the Germans said, "of little use", "of little value" Jews should fall. They included old people and children. People were well aware that they were just another batch of the doomed. It is known about the resettlement of people in the second ghetto of Glubokoe village that it lasted about two weeks, from May 20 to the first days of June 1942. Every day for 2 weeks old men and women were brought here on carts. In fact, many specialists (shoemakers, carpenters, tailors) fell into the second ghetto in Glubokoye - people of physical labor who were waiting for work at enterprises run by the German Wehrmacht. In Belarus, one of the most prominent supporters of the temporary preservation of Jews for economic needs was the gebitskommissar (district commissar) of Slutsk - Karol. It was he who opposed the destruction of artisans, arguing in October 1941 that only Jews were engaged in crafts in Belarus. To stimulate this virtual slave power, Karol, like other administrators who kept artisans and, in general, the so-called vital workers, also kept their families (rarely parents, but often wives and children). Gebitskommissar Erren, while on the territory of Slonim, wrote: “As soon as auxiliary work is carried out, the Jews will be destroyed, except for the necessary artisans and skilled workers ... In my vocational schools, I will force Jewish specialists to teach their craft to smart students, so that later it will be possible to get by in these professions without the Jews and liquidate the latter." Reich Commissar of Ostland G. Lohse pointed out "urgent care should be taken to train skilled workers from local youth", which once again emphasizes the desire to short time decide " Jewish question» . The need for the use of Jewish skilled labor resources in the zones of the German military and civil administration partly influenced the sequence of the destruction of the Jewish population. One of the priorities of the occupation regime was the speedy opening of craft workshops and service enterprises. The absence or shortage of skilled workers forced the authorities to use Jewish specialists. Even before or after the first executions in the German zone of occupation, the Nazis selected such specialists (shoemakers, blacksmiths, tailors) and used their labor from a week to several months, and sometimes for a year and a half.
On October 21, 1943, the Minsk ghetto was liquidated, in which (from the beginning of the occupation of Belarus by the Nazis) almost 100 thousand Jews from Belarus and from all over Europe were killed ...
Exactly three years Minsk was under occupation by Wehrmacht troops.
The new government in the very first days imposed a "contribution" on the Jews of Minsk, taking away their jewelry and currency.
A Jewish committee was created (“Judenrat”, as in other occupied European cities), whose chairman, thanks to the knowledge of the German language, was Ilya Mushkin (who worked before the war as the head of one of the trusts).
In July 1941, in line with Hitler's "Endlösung der Judenfrage" (the extermination program for the Jews), the Germans began to create ghettos. The head of the SS and police of the district "Belarus" Zenner, together with General Shenkendorf (commander of the "Center"), held a meeting at which they discussed a plan for the extermination of the Jews of the capital of the Byelorussian SSR, as well as Jews brought from Minsk from all over Europe.
From now on, a representative of the German command Gorodetsky, a pathological sadist, half German, who had previously lived in Leningrad, had unlimited rights in this area of the city.
The Judenrad did not have any rights. He was charged only to collect money from the Jews, as well as to carry out sanitary measures (the Germans were afraid of the start of possible epidemics).
By August 1, 1941, the resettlement of all Jews into the ghetto was completed - 80 thousand people. By October of the same year, their number had already exceeded 100,000.
In total there were three various plot: "Big" ghetto, "Small" ghetto (near the radio plant named after Molotov) and "Zonderghetto" (just for two dozen Jews deported from the countries of Eastern, Central and Western Europe).
The perimeter of the ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire and a high fence. The guard consisted of SS soldiers, as well as Lithuanian and Belarusian policemen.
Under pain of death, all prisoners were required to wear special signs - fabric yellow "armor" and white stripes with house numbers (on the back and chest).
Photo from Mogilev, summer 1941 -
Policemen and Germans raped girls with complete impunity, killed and robbed the inhabitants of the ghetto...
The life of the prisoners was burned by all sorts of prohibitions, the violation of which was unconditionally followed by execution. The territory of the ghetto, as already mentioned, was not allowed to leave, it was forbidden to barter food from non-Jews, wear furs, remove identification marks, walk along sidewalks and central streets (only on the pavement), go into public places, gardens ... 15 meters before the meeting with a German, a Jew had to take off his headdress.
Several times Gorodetsky collected from the ghetto the so-called. “contributions”: for the first time 10 kilograms of gold, 2 centners of silver and 2 million rubles, the second time 50 kg of silver and gold ... Under pain of death, representatives of the Jewish Committee also took part in this robbery.
Common food in the ghetto was potato skin pancakes, as well as lard, which could be scraped off pig skins found in an old tannery. Those Jews who were involved in the work were given a bowl of gruel once a day.
In the photo - a column of prisoners, 1941 -
In the photo - railway forced labor, Minsk, winter 1942 -
Also - forced labor of Minsk Jews -
There was also an illegal market for the exchange of material values through barbed wire and work columns (German officers also took part in such exchanges). The course of this market is curious: for example, for a gold watch they gave 3 onions and one loaf of bread.
The population density was monstrous - sometimes up to a hundred people lived in two apartments! Without taking into account children, from 1.2 to one and a half square meters per person.
Of course, unsanitary conditions, hunger and overcrowding were the causes of constant epidemics and epidemic diseases.
In the photo - typical ghetto buildings -
The massacres of prisoners (which the Germans called "actions") took place in November 1941 (more than 30 thousand people were killed), in March 1942 (up to 10 thousand Jews), in July 1942 (25 thousand) and October 1943 (when three days before the liberation of the ghetto prisoners, 22,000 Jews brought from European countries were hastily destroyed).
From the spring of 1942, Jewish children were killed in gas-vans - gas chambers, grabbing them right on the streets and stuffing them into such cars -
There were also numerous pogroms (the most famous and bloody: in August, November 1941, January, July and December 1942) - both night and day. A popular option was massacres during the day, when all able-bodied Jews went to forced labor ...
In historical literature, there is the concept of "March 2 Massacre" denoting a pogrom on March 2-3, 1942, when a large group of prisoners was sent towards Dzerzhinsk. Those who did not freeze on the way were shot in the Putchinskiy village council. On the same day, another 3,500 Jews were shot west of Minsk.
In the meantime, trucks driven by policemen and Germans drove into the ghetto itself, killing more than 5,000 people, whose corpses were dumped into a quarry, on the site of which (Minsk Melnikayte street) the memorial complex "Pit" was created in 2000 -
But the bloody events of the March 2 massacre did not end there. By 10 o'clock in the morning, due to the fact that required amount no people were found to be shot, the Germans broke into the territory orphanage, lined up all the children (from 200 to 300 together with teachers and medical staff) in a column, took them aside along Ratomsky Street and threw them into a pit ...
Commissar Wilhelm Kube approached this pit -
He ordered sweets to be served to him and began to throw them into the pit for children, who were covered alive with earth ...
Gauleiter lived for more than a year until he was blown up by a time bomb. In general, this bastard received the nickname "lucky", because every time he managed to elude numerous assassination attempts organized by Soviet partisans ...
Photo of Cuba in Minsk, May 1943 -
At the end of the “March 2 massacre”, the Germans also shot people who were returning from work in the evening ...
In general, some stories from the Minsk ghetto simply make the blood run cold. So, for example, on December 29, 1942, the chief of police Ribe entered the children's department of the hospital and personally stabbed seven sick children with a knife. After that, he left the building, took off his white gloves, ate a chocolate bar and lit a cigarette ...
There is a striking difference with armchair worms such as the ideologist of the “final solution of the issue” Himmler, who during his visit to Minsk (pictured below) began to vomit and eventually fainted when ONE Minsk Jew was shot in his presence.
In total, out of the initial hundred thousand people, by the beginning of 1943, only 6 thousand people survived, that is, more than 90 thousand Jews were killed!
By October 21, 1943, ALL residents of the Minsk ghetto were killed. Only 13 people survived, hiding for several months in the basement of a house on the street. Dry and released only in July 1944 (on the day of the liberation of Minsk), as well as skilled craftsmen who were taken to Germany by the occupiers.
Already from the first months of the existence of the ghetto, underground resistance was organized, consisting of 22 groups that united several hundred people and coordinated by Mikhail Gebelev
Venetian Jewish ghetto is a canal-isolated area in the Canareggio quarter, where they were evicted during the Venetian Republic. The word "Ghetto" itself comes from the Italian "ghetto" - "slag", which was used in connection with the smelter, which accumulated slag, located on the same island as the Jewish settlement.
An alternative explanation comes from the Italian word " borghetto" descended from borgo-" small town."
Jews began to settle in Venice as early as the 12th century, mainly on the island of Giudecca. In 1516, the Pope issued an order for the expulsion of the Jews from Venice. The Council of Ten made a compromise decision on the settlement of the Jews on a separate island in the Cannaregio quarter. The settlement became known as Getto Nuovo - a new foundry. Later, the same name was used for all Jewish enclaves in Europe.
The Venetian ghetto is an island separated from the rest of Venice by canals across which three bridges are thrown. In the evenings, the gates to these bridges were closed, and Jews, except for doctors, were forbidden to leave the Ghetto at night. The gate was guarded by Christian guards. Over time, Jews were allowed to leave the Ghetto on the condition of special headdresses and yellow insignia.
In addition to geographic restrictions, Jews were also prohibited from engaging in certain activities. They were allowed to engage in manufacture, usury and medicine. They were forbidden to practice fine arts and own real estate.
The number of ghettoes grew, as a result, the number of storeys of houses also grew. Only here you can see the "Venetian skyscrapers" - buildings up to 8 floors.
In 1541, the Old Ghetto (Italian Ghetto Vecchio) was added to the area, and in 1633 the Newest Ghetto (Italian Ghetto Novissimo). By this time, the Jewish population of Venice exceeded 5,000 people and consisted of two communities: Ashkenazi and Sephardic. Subsequently, 5 synagogues for various Jewish communities existed in the ghetto.
The gates to the Ghetto were dismantled by Napoleon in 1797, but restored with the arrival of the Austrians. They were finally demolished in 1866.
To this day, a stone slab has been preserved in the Ghetto (at the entrance from the Fondamenta di Cannaregio), on which the punishment is explained to which a baptized Jew who continues to secretly observe Jewish rites will be subjected.
Despite the large number of Jews living there, they never assimilated among themselves to form the "Jews of Venice". 4 out of 5 existing synagogues are clearly divided according to ethnicity: there is a German synagogue, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as a Levantine Sephardic synagogue. Fifth synagogue, Scuola Canton, is believed to have been either a French synagogue or a private synagogue of those families who paid for its construction.
The Jewish ghetto is also reflected in literature. Shakespeare, in his The Merchant of Venice (1595), mentions the Venetian Jew Shylock and his family. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in 1931 Geschichten von lieben Gott, including a scene in the Ghetto. Cronbach wrote the trilogy " Kinder des Ghetto.Traumer des Ghetto.Komodien des Ghetto.(1897 - 1907).
On the phone, I heard the excited voice of my friend who lives in Germany:
– I recently traveled to Italy. Unforgettable impressions. Of course, she was also in Venice. There I learned that this city is the birthplace of the first in Europe Jewish ghetto, and that the word "ghetto" means "foundry". Today, the ghetto is the name of one of the seven Venetian urban areas. When I visited it, I was in a state of shock. I took a few photos there. I will definitely send.
I must say that this message shocked me too. And the point is not only that the concept of “ghetto” makes the hearts of many people shrink, especially Jews, which we are, but also that my friend and I are also professional casters - people who have completely devoted themselves to this difficult and very interesting profession. My national and professional involvement in the concept of "ghetto" gave rise to many questions in me. And this is what the search for answers to them led to.
The position of the Jews in Christian Europe during the Renaissance was difficult. The great Sephardi diaspora, which poured in from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497, led the Jews to an active migration. Venice, a major trading center in the Middle Ages, was the natural place of Jewish settlement. Over time, when their numbers reached a "critical value", they had to face the hostility of the Christian population there. The monks, with their sermons, provoked a campaign to expel the Jews from the city. Its culmination came in 1515-1516. The authorities of Venice were by no means enthusiastic about the expulsion of the Jews. The fact is that the Jews were a powerful source of replenishment of the city treasury. And then on March 29, 1516, the Senate of the Venetian Republic issued a decree legalizing the residence of Jews in Venice and at the same time restricting their rights:
All Jews living on different streets of our city, as well as those who come to us from other places, will have to settle in the houses of the Ghetto, which is near the church of St. Jerome. The Jews must all settle together, and so that they do not go out from there at night, on the one hand through the bridge, and on the other - through the big bridge, two gates must be built, ... which will be guarded by four Christian guards, who will be paid by the Jews ...
The first Jewish quarter was called "ghetto nuovo", which translates as "new foundry". (It. Ghetto - getto; Venetian. ghetum - foundry, from ghetta'r - pour.) This quarter is located in the part of the central islands, the most distant from the city center - St. Mark's Square. Recall that Venice is an island city. The new foundry was turned into an island with the help of canals, along which two patrol boats with six Christian guards sailed. In addition, the ghetto was surrounded by high walls, and all the windows of the houses looking outward were bricked up. Outwardly, it was no different from other residential areas of the city. The streets are just as narrow and dark. The houses are shabby and do not at all resemble the magnificent buildings that still stand today in the area of San Marco and Santa Croce. Simplicity appearance the ghetto was dictated by the desire not to arouse the envy of Christians.
In addition to all the restrictions on life in the ghetto mentioned above, one should also note the one-third increase in the rent for property. Of course, the humiliating restrictions could not but arouse protest and resistance among the Jews. However, in those days, they themselves often raised the issue of enclosing their quarters with walls and increasing their height. The fact is that the walls protected the Jews from the manifestation of religious fanaticism and from envious eyes. At the same time, life inside the ghetto was not oppressed by anyone. Therefore, upon entering a Jewish home, one could discover a world of beauty and good taste. There was a conservatory and a theater in the ghetto, classes were held in music and dance schools, excellent musicians worked, who were often invited to the most noble Venetian houses. Behind a high fence, great sages worked on translations of ancient texts, book printing developed. Thanks to the inhabitants of the ghetto, Venice in the 16th century. became a recognized center of Jewish culture. True, they had to pay for all this ... The Jews were heavily taxed, they were forbidden to engage in crafts, agriculture and commercial transactions, but they were allowed trade, medicine, and banking and money transactions. The latter were forbidden to Christians.
Over time, two more ghettos arose in Venice. They were located, like the first, on two nearby islands. In 1541, Jews from the Levant (cities in the eastern Mediterranean - Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, etc.) were settled near the old foundry. This is how the “vechiu ghetto” arose, and in 1633 the settlement of Jews in Venice was expanded by joining the novissimo ghetto, or “the newest foundry,” to it.
In the XVIII century. Venetian Jews were subjected to severe oppression, and the population of the ghetto began to decline. In 1797, General Napoleon, the future Emperor Napoleon I, by his decree lifted all restrictions on the movement of Jews around the city and canceled the status of the Venetian ghetto as a reservation. Apparently, this also affected the general's loyalty to the principles French Revolution. Today, there are practically no Jews in Venice, and the former ghetto has become a tourist attraction.
So, the term "ghetto" was born in Italy, and, starting from 1562, they began to call it isolated Jewish settlements in the cities of Christian countries. Since that year, the word "ghetto" has become the official term used in papal bulls and anti-Jewish laws.
It's time to turn to the "casting side" of such an ominous term. In numerous literary sources, only one thing is absolutely clear: all the foundries around which the ghettos arose in Venice were abandoned and once guns were cast in them. If we take into account the time and place, when and where they functioned, then we can assume with a high degree of probability that these were bronze items. And, in all likelihood, excellent casters worked in the Venetian ghettos. From historical documents the following is known. In the XIII-XIV centuries. Venice, Byzantium, Genoa and Florence were famous for their cast products. In 1474, the Russian Tsar Ivan III instructed his ambassador in Venice, S. Tolbuzin, to invite an experienced architect to Moscow who would know the foundry industry well. This order was carried out brilliantly. The ambassador in the same year brought with him the master Aristotle Fioravanti. In 1478, Fiorovanti built a cannon foundry in Moscow, located in Kitay-gorod and called the Cannon Hut. Later, he built a new plant on the Neglinka River - the Cannon Yard.
In connection with the various aspects of the emergence of ghettos in Europe mentioned above, the following cannot be overlooked. Throughout the 15th century there was an active migration of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. Most of them settled in Ottoman Empire. Among the arrivals were many artisans. It was they who brought gunpowder and the high art of casting to Turkey. This is how Sultan Bayazet of Turkey assessed the role of the arriving Jews: “You consider Ferdinand (the Spanish king; V.S.) a smart king, but he ruined his own country and enriched ours.” To this we can add that in the XVI century. in the hands of the Jews was all the diplomacy of the Ottoman Empire.
Soon after the first two ghettos mentioned above, another one arose in Italy - the Roman one (1555). Without a story about him, the history of the Jewish ghetto would be incomplete.
In the 16th century, the politics of the papacy, as well as those of the princes, were often favorable to the Jews, since they were used to advantage. Pope Paul III (1534 - 1549) even encouraged the settlement in Rome of Jews expelled from Naples (1541), and six years later he honored an audience with the Marranos (the so-called Jews who converted to Christianity and possibly supported Judaism in secret), promising them protection from inquisition. His successor Julian III renewed this guarantee. However, in May 1555, Cardinal Caraffa ascended the papal throne under the name of Paul IV. Under the new pope, attitudes towards Jews deteriorated sharply. He believed that Judaism was a deadly threat to the Christian faith. Two months after his election, Paul IV extended the Venetian decision on the expulsion of Jews to the ghetto to Rome with a special bull (a papal document sealed with a lead and sometimes gold seal). As a result, on July 26, 1555, the Roman Jews were driven to the left bank of the Tiber and two months later surrounded by a wall. At the same time, they were forced to sell all their real estate, located outside the territory of the ghetto. In addition, according to the papal decision, Jews were forbidden to own land, trade grain, and Christians to be treated by Jewish doctors. Almost all synagogues in Rome were closed.
So, the Roman ghetto became the area of residence of the most ancient community of the Eternal City. Jews began to come here long before the Colosseum was built, long before the Vatican appeared on the opposite bank of the Tiber. At first, the ghetto was not very large - for 2000 people, and occupied small area. Its inhabitants were forced to huddle in incredible crowding. Due to the limited territory, the houses had to be built at that time very high - 5-6 floors. After 30 years, the territory was expanded to the Tiber, but this did not affect living conditions, since Jews from all over the papal state were driven into the ghetto. To late XVII more than 9,000 people lived there. The place where the ghetto was located was "rotten", unhealthy, it was flooded during floods. There was also a problem with drinking water: due to the lack of fountains, people drank directly from the river. In the light of all the above, the inhabitants of the ghetto were incessantly mowed down by epidemics. Living conditions in the ghetto were difficult: its gates were locked from sunset to sunrise.
In 1826, the ghetto was somewhat expanded: the wall was moved to Mattei Square, but for this the Jews were obliged to attend Christian services. There was a draconian fine for refusal. And the inhabitants had to obey, however, during the service they tightly plugged their ears with wax.
In 1870, the secular power of the pope in Italy was ended. It was then that the Jews of the Roman ghetto were released from imprisonment. Along with its wall, many buildings were destroyed, including the ancient synagogue. It seemed that the black page of history had been turned over. But, alas... Seventy years later, the Nazis revived the ghetto.
In October 2008, in funds mass media It was reported that Leone Sabatello, the last of the inhabitants of the Roman Jewish ghetto who survived the massacre perpetrated by the Nazi invaders on October 16, 1943, died in the Italian capital on the 5th. That day he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with thousands of his comrades. Sabatello, prisoner with camp number 158621, was released soviet soldiers. Later, he categorically refused to visit Auschwitz as a "tourist".
Lovers of Russian literature, especially poetry, are well aware of I. Brodsky's poem "Piazza Mattei" (1981). The first word is translated as "square", and the second - the most famous Italian aristocratic surname. Pyotr Weil’s commentary to the mentioned poem says: “The square is on the edge of the old Roman ghetto, where kosher shops and eateries now come across, nearby is the best Roman Jewish restaurant in the city “Piperno”, with specially breaded cod and fried artichokes alla giudea” . The main attraction of the square is, perhaps, one of the many fountains in Rome - the Turtle Fountain: four bronze youths are pushing turtles into a bowl in the form of a vase. The first four lines of Brodsky's poem are literally mesmerizing: "I drank from this fountain / in the gorge of Rome. / Now, without soaking the caftan, / I'm passing by." Weil conveys the poet's feelings from the described part of Rome with the following words: "That from which you become physically happy."
In modern times, the former Roman Jewish ghetto has become an "artist's quarter", a bohemian dwelling place, "Roman Montmartre". The charm of this bustling area is mesmerizing. This is where old and new, biblical and bohemian meet.