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Ghettos
Introduction to the Ghettos of the Holocaust
Jewish Ghettos The Judenrat Judenrat Leaders Prominent Jews
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The Zwolen Ghetto
Jews had lived in Zwolen since the 16th Century and by the 17th Century they represented ten percent of the population of the town, which then numbered some 2,700 inhabitants.
As a result almost eighty percent of the town was destroyed, and the invading German soldiers, and was the subject of many photographs. Shortly after occupying Zwolen, German soldiers burned a group of Jews alive in a barn and economic persecution of the Jews began immediately.
The Nazis confiscated Jewish property, and the Jews were forced to pay very high “fines”, and were used as forced labourers.
The synagogue in Zwolen, which had been severely damaged during the bombing of the town, was totally destroyed at the beginning of the occupation.
At the beginning of 1941, a ghetto was established in the southern part of the town, about 6,000 – 7,000 Jews from Zwolen itself and from neighbouring villages were concentrated in the ghetto.
Because virtually the entire town had been destroyed by the German attacks in September 1939 the ghetto was not closed, but those people that left the Ghetto area searching for food were in many cases caught and shot.
During this final liquidation of the ghetto and on the march to the railway station, about 200 Jews were executed. Many of the old and sick people who were not able to walk to the Garbatka railway station were killed at the Jewish cemetery.
Copyright: Noah S. Archer H.E.A.R.T 2007
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