The destruction of the Jewish community

Poland became a target of the Nazi regime on 1 September 1939. The German authorities issued decrees discriminating against the civilian population, particularly the Jews, from the beginning of the occupation. In October 1939, Jews in Polish territories occupied by the Germans were ordered to wear a Star of David when in public, either as a white armband with a blue, six-pointed Jewish star or in the shape of a yellow star to be sewn on their outer garment. Not wearing this was punishable—initially with a beating, later with a fine or imprisonment, and from 15th October 1941 with the death penalty. Also, the ritual slaughter was forbidden, as was Jewish public worship, Jewish children were not permitted in public schools, and their families were not allowed to own radios.

The sense of insecurity and fear intensified. In the open ghetto of Bodzentyn, making a living was becoming increasingly difficult. Goldie Szachter Kalib recounts how the family mill was confiscated by the occupation government in the closing months of 1940 and handed over to a Volksdeutsche, a German living in Poland, who had moved into Bodzentyn and been elevated to the position of the commissar. On 4 November that same year, the Banking co-operative of Bodzentyn (Bank spółdzielczy) excluded all of its Jewish clients and closed their accounts.

The vast majority of the Jewish population had been excluded from economic life and needed support from the community.

"A report from the town of Bodzentyn (Radom district) relates that out of the 1,400 Jews in the ghetto 50 percent were in need of relief."

German troops in Poland encountering a Jewish man on the street. Editor's note: The photo is NOT from Bodzentyn.

In Bodzentyn and all the districts of the General Government, Jews over ten were required to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David on it. In the latter part of 1941, the introduction of the death penalty, or Schiessbefehl, for anyone caught leaving the ghetto was decreed to deter smuggling and escape.

A note concerning the sheltering of escaping Jews serving as a reminder that per paragraph 3 of the decree of October 15, 1941, on the limitation of residence in the General Government, Jews leaving the Jewish Quarter without permission will incur the death penalty. According to this decree, those knowingly helping these Jews by providing shelter, supplying food, or selling foodstuffs are also subject to the death penalty (Częstochowa, Poland September 1942).

Photo of the board of the  Jewish communal organization in Bodzentyn. From the left: Yitzchak (Icek) Szafir, and next to him, the Rabbi of Bodzentyn (most probably Rabbi Herszka Szwarc, also known as Henry Schwartz and Hirsh Shwartz), followed by Meir Grossman (Morris Grossman) and Nus'n Szachter, who was formerly organization's secretary. The two men at the far right have not yet been identified. However, the gentleman on the far right may be the young Shmiel Weintraub.

As in other places, the Nazis ordered the Jewish council in Bodzentyn to produce a group of Jewish males fit for work and present them on a given day. Most of the time, no one knew where the Germans would take the slave labourers on each particular occasion. At times, the boys and men would go and perform different kinds of work nearby and then get back in the evening; other days, they would be transported further away. For example, the Jews from Bodzentyn were brought as slave labourers to Starachowice-Wierzbnik and Skarżysko Kamienna.

Arrested Jewish men are transported on a truck in Nazi German-occupied Poland. Editor's note: The photo is NOT from Bodzentyn. Read more information about the photo in the Bundesarchiv.

Bodzentyn had fallen within the jurisdiction of a Gendarmerie post under the command of a man named Dumker, also referred to as Dunkier. He made periodic visits to Bodzentyn and arrested various members of the intelligentsia—both Jews and non-Jews—who were never seen again. People witnessed that the Gendarmerie and specifically the blond man of short stature “pies krwawy” (“bloody dog”) Dumker was harassing the Jews of Bodzentyn frequently, almost every day. Whenever Dumker was in town he left pools of blood. He was seemingly obsessed with the killing of Jews.

Rachel Saphir Einesman (Rachel Szafir Ejnesman) has a vivid memory of the murder of the young Jewess Gela Sztarkman:

“I remember that Dumker often came along. He had several mistresses. He came into the store asking me for various things. We gave him whatever he demanded. We heard that already on the road, he had killed several people. I remember that this Dumker killed the Sztarkman family [- - - ] the German killed the parents leaving a 14-year-old daughter, Gela Sztarkman, and a boy of 10. Daddy said to me: ‘Go, check on Gela, see what she needs.’ For me, it was easier. Daddy felt responsible for the two orphans. When I went to Gela, Dumker appeared. [The Sztarkman family] had a candy store. I was standing in the corner wishing to speak with her, but there was no time. The Germans from Bieliny came, as well as Dumker along with his mistress. He commanded [Gela] to give him some pralines, for the Polish girl [the mistress] wanted to have these. She went up to the shelf on a ladder to bring the box down.

Then he shot her in the back. She fell [off the ladder], and they all laughed at this ‘show’. I sneaked out. They had not seen me. I ran off. I do not know what happened to the [Sztarkman] boy.”

Not being mortally wounded, Gela tried to make her escape when Dumker left the store. However, he returned and killed the young woman in the courtyard.

The sign of the store “Fruit and sweets – Gela Sztarkman” is preserved in Bodzentyn. It was shown to the public in 2009 during the Dawid Rubinowicz Days by Towarzystwo Dawida Rubinowicza (TDR)/The Dawid Rubinowicz Society.

The first ghetto in occupied Poland was set up in the autumn of 1939. At the beginning of 1942, there were hundreds of them to be seen all over Poland and Eastern Europe. Not only did the Germans bring Jews to these ghettos from the immediate surroundings, but Jews were also brought by way of deportation from other places, even Germany and Austria. This was the case also in Bodzentyn. In the fall of 1940, the Jewish Community, consisting of approximately 300 families, was faced with the responsibility to absorb many impoverished Jews from the city of Płock. In the spring of 1941, all of them were confined in the ghetto of Bodzentyn with strict orders not to move in or out of the village.

The Jewish refugees from Płock (Plotz, Plotzk) had gone through hell even before their deportation to Bodzentyn.

“As elsewhere in Poland, the Jews of Płock were quickly subjected to confiscation [of personal property], marking [i.e., wearing a Star of David], forced labour, and many other indignities. They were also ‘ghettoized,’ forced to reside in a delimited but unwalled section of town and forbidden to leave without a permit. As Płock was part of the ‘incorporated territories’ of western Poland annexed to the Third Reich, the threat of total expulsion also hung over Poles and Jews alike. The Jews paid a large bribe in mid-January 1941 to defer deportation until the winter weather had passed but to no avail. In a last flurry of expulsions in early 1941—before military claims on rail transportation in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union brought such expulsions to an end—the Jews of Płock were deported in late February.”

"They converted the synagogue into a hospital"

Outside the ghetto, having a fake identification card could help one avoid arrest, as did change one’s appearance. Michael Zelon and his father, who had started a business smuggling leather from Bodzentyn to Szydłowiec, understood that they would not be allowed to leave the town with this new order. Their business, however small, was their livelihood, and they decided to keep it up:

“My father came up with a bike idea, he bought a bicycle, and I went on the bicycle to Szydłowiec, and we hid leather under my shirt. I could go fairly freely because in school [in Płock] as a [lone] Jew we had on our report card ‘religion’, and by mistake, they put on my report card ‘Catholic’ […] as a matter of fact [the Germans] stopped me once and I showed the document. They let me go without any problem as a Catholic.” 

The influx of the Płocker refugees almost doubled the Jewish population of Bodzentyn. As a result of this, an epidemic of typhus broke out. The horrific situation can be partially studied in the documents found in the Ringelblum Archive. The Płocker refugees and Płockers Committee in Bodzentyn wrote to the Płockers' Association in Warsaw, describing the situation and asking for aid on various occasions, such as in letters dated from mid-March in 1941 through September 1942.

On arrival in Bodzentyn, four hundred of the refugees from Płock were assembled in the synagogue. Later on, when the epidemic of typhoid broke out, the synagogue was converted into a hospital. Editor's note: The photo shows civilians lodged in a synagogue in Poland in 1939. It is NOT from Bodzentyn.

The Ringelblum Archive confirms that 1,500 Płockers were deported to Bodzentyn. Four hundred were housed in the synagogue. The number seems to have shrunk drastically. In May 1941, the number of Płockers was only 1,200.

In the letters, the Płockers recognize the aid they received from the Jewish council in Bodzentyn. However, it was not enough, and the people asked for assistance from others as well to stay alive. For example, in June 1941, they requested further aid as an epidemic of typhus broke out, with 200 persons sick and numerous deaths.

After the end of September 1942, the Płockers in Bodzentyn were not heard of again.

To many of the Jews in Bodzentyn, the day of liquidation came suddenly before they could follow through on any escape plans. Four Jews are known to have made their escape later on from the camps and found shelter with the assistance of the Dziuba family in the vicinity of Bodzentyn, and Nachman “Józef” Rubinowicz was hidden behind something like a double wall in the house of Maria and Kazimierz Zygadlewicz in Bodzentyn from 1943 until the end of the war.

It is well-known that Jews from the surrounding villages and towns, such as Krajno and Nowa Słupia, were deported to Bodzentyn before the ghetto was liquidated.

In a note on a postcard sent to Warszaw from Bodzentyn on September 30, 1942, a woman named Rózia writes:

"Dear Józek [...]  I'm in Bodzentyn for the time being. Today I came to Bodzentyn. How long I'll be here, I don't know. [...] Rózia with the children."