Leopoldów Ghetto

Members of the Boys were imprisoned in the Leopoldów Ghetto.

The Leopoldów 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 Leopoldów 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 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.

Overview

Leopoldów was located in eastern Poland, within the Lublin Voivodeship. Before World War II, it was home to a small Jewish community. The ghetto was established in 1942 and held an estimated 2,000 individuals from surrounding towns and villages.

Layout
The ghetto was concentrated in the central area of Leopoldów, particularly around the marketplace and nearby streets. It was not enclosed by walls or fences but was tightly controlled by German authorities and local police units.

Daily Life

Conditions in the Leopoldów Ghetto were harsh. Families lived in cramped conditions with limited access to food, clean water, or medical care. The Judenrat (Jewish council) attempted to coordinate food distribution and limited welfare, but resources were extremely limited.

Hunger and disease were widespread. People attempted to maintain religious and cultural practices in private, and informal schooling for children was sometimes organised. Able-bodied men were forced into labour, often sent to work on local infrastructure projects or at nearby farms.

Deportations

^{Sobibór extermination camp}

The ghetto in Leopoldów was used as a transit point.

Beginning in October 1942, several hundred individuals were deported in stages.

Many were transported by train to the Sobibór extermination camp, where they were murdered upon arrival

Liquidation

The final liquidation of the Leopoldów Ghetto took place in late October 1942. German forces and local auxiliaries rounded up the remaining population. Those unable to walk or who attempted to hide were shot. The rest were loaded onto trains at a nearby railway point and sent to the Sobibór extermination camp.

Some individuals escaped during the chaos or went into hiding with the help of local residents. However, many of those who fled were later captured and killed.

Jewish Resistance

Some families managed to hide children with Polish neighbours, while others fled to forests in the hope of joining partisan groups.

Memorialisation

There is a memorial stone near the town centre.