Starachowice-Wierzbnik Ghetto

The Starachowice-Wierzbnik 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 Starachowice-Wierzbnik 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.

Photograph of Harry Wajchandler, 1947 — Harry Wajchandler,

Photograph of Fischel Kampel in Kloster Indersdorf, Germany in 1945. — Harry Wajchandler,

^{Three of the Boys who were held in the Starachowice-Wierzbnik Ghetto}

Wierzbnik is 43km south-southwest of Radom in central Poland. By 1939, there were 3,880 Jews living in Wierzbnik and only 40 in adjacent Starachowice. In April 1939, both towns were joined under the name of Starachowice-Wierzbnik. To find out more about the story of the Boys from Starachowice-Wierzbnik click here.

^{Starachowice Holocaust Memorial}

Overview

The ghetto was set up by the Germans in February 1941 in Wierzbnik, which is now part of the town of Starachowice. Jews from Łódź and Płock were also imprisoned in the ghetto.

The ghettos were the only place, besides labour camps, where Jews were allowed to exist by the Nazi occupation authorities.

Daily Life

As in all the ghettos life in the Wierzbnik Ghetto was extremely harsh. The ghetto was overcrowded, and families were forced to share apartments. There was a shortage of food and poor sanitation. Hunger and disease claimed many lives. Jews were only allowed out of the ghetto if they had permission and risked being shot if caught outside its perimeters.

Liquidation

The liquidation of the Starachowice-Wierzbnik Ghetto took place on 27 October 1942.

^{Howard Chandler}

Chaim Wajchandler, later Howard Chandler, recalled in his testament to the US Shoah Foundation that two other families lived in his house, which was inside the ghetto.

He would sneak out of the ghetto to get food from the village where his grandparents had lived. Wajchandler was 13 years old in 1942 and went to the market square with his family. He recalled, “People who were slow to follow the orders were being beaten and shot – children and adults were crying – the feeble and invalids being shot in their houses – it was an experience that I still have nightmares about.”

Wajchandler lied about his age and was allowed to join his father who had a work permit but many of his friends did not manage to convince the Germans they were older than they were. His mother, sister and younger brother were among the 4,000 people taken to the Treblinka extermination camp.

Wajchandler and his father were among 1,600 men and women selected for slave labour in the Starachowice ammunition factory.

Ghetto Name:

Starachowice-Wierzbnik

Yiddish Name:

Virzbnik

Before September 1939:

Poland

1939 - 1945:

General Government

Present Day:

Poland

Period of Operation:

February 1941-October 1942

Ghetto Population:

5,800 (October 1942)

Date of Deportations:

October 1942

Ghetto Liquidation:

27 October 1942

Death Camp Destination:

Treblinka extermination camp

Slave Labour Camp Destination:

Starachowice labour camp

Jewish Resistance:

No recorded resistance movement

Jewish Uprising:

None

Memorialisation:

There is a memorial

Associated Boys:

The following members of the Boys have so far been identified as having been in the ghetto:

Elias Kadysiewicz
Hil Kadysiewicz
Fischel Kampel
Harry Chandler
Howard Chandler
Kiva Kadysiewicz
Chaim Mordka Hilf

Map:

Gallery: