Brzozów Ghetto

Members of the Boys were imprisoned in the Brzozów Ghetto.

The Brzozów Ghetto was one of a network of ghettos set up by Nazi Germany in which Jews were forced to live in occupied Poland. As with other ghettos in Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, the Brzozów ghetto was established to contain the region’s Jews and isolate them from the rest of the population until the Nazi leadership could decide on an answer to the so-called “Jewish Question.”

The Boys and their families were forced to move from their homes and were held in ghettos in Nazi controlled Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, where they spent years living in dire conditions. The ghettos were not designed for the vast numbers of people forced to find space to live within them. As a result, multiple families shared cramped and insanitary accommodation.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

Brzozów is a town in south-eastern Poland. The ghetto in Brzozów ghetto established in 1941 or early 1942.

Layout

It covered the eastern part of the market square along with Piastowa Street. Jews forced to resettle in the ghetto could only take up to 20kg of belongings with them. The ghetto was overcrowded, with up to ten people sharing a room. Residents were prohibited from leaving the ghetto on pain of death.

On 18 June 1942, a further 400 Jews were resettled to Brzozów from nearby towns, including 20 families from Humniska. Some people were also resettled from Krosno.

Liquidation

On 10 August 1942, a selection was made at the local sports stadium near the Stobnica River.

In the selection 258 Jews were chosen to be deported to the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. About 40 people were sent to work at the refinery in Grabownica.

The remaining Jews were loaded into trucks and driven to the forests in Brzozów-Zdrój and Stara Wieś were two large pits had already been dug. They were ordered to undress and then led deep into the forest until they reached a clearing where the locals often had picnics. The execution was carried out by three SS, who shot the victims in the back of the head. Small children were murdered using an iron crowbar. By 2pm, between 700 and 800 people had been murdered. Since the police ordered the Judenrat (Jewish council) to prepare detailed lists of the people sent in the trucks, a search began for about 100 people who had managed to hide.

Some sources, including the Books of Remembrance, indicate that many Jews who survived the selection were then sent to Iwonicz, located 23km from Brzozów. From there, the Jews from Brzozów are assumed to have been sent to the extermination camp in Bełżec.

Memorialisation

Since 1962 a memorial and plaque has marked the mass graves.