Zagłada żydowskiego miasta – likwidacja getta na Podzamczu
The Agony of a Jewish Town – the Liquidation of Lublin’s Podzamcze Ghetto

Summary/Abstract: On the night of 16/17 March 1942, the Germans set out to carry out Operation „Reinhardt”, the goal of which was the biological extermination of the Jewish population. The first ghetto selected for the liquidation was Lublin’s Podzamcze. The deportations can be divided into two basic stages; the first of them was completed around the end of March, when it was suspended for 2 or 3 days, and until then the action was taking place only at night. Stage II went on from 31 March to 14 April, and the deportations continued both during the day and at night. It can be assumed that the liquidation of the Podzamcze ghetto was a testing ground and the experience gained in Lublin was to be used in the liquidation of subsequent concentrations of the Jewish population.The deportations from Podzamcze ghetto were preceded by actions aimed at the logistic preparation of the operation. The ghetto was divided into Part A and Part B, the latter being surrounded with barbed wire and set aside for the Jews classified as „useful”, with further rules being enacted that restricted the place of stay, the stamping of labour certificates was introduced and all the Judenrat sections and institutions were moved into the ghetto.The liquidation of the ghetto itself took a very brutal course, with many Jews being beaten up or shot dead inside its walls. The operation was performed by German units aided by auxiliary units from Trawniki, made up of Soviet POWs. Approximately 28,000 Jews were taken to the Bełżec death camp, while about 1000 were murdered on the spot. Just over 4,000 Jews were officially moved to the Restgetto on Majdan Tatarski, with about as many getting there illegally.

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