Grodno, Poland (Belarus)

General

Grodno is a city in the western part of Belarus. Between the wars, it was part of Poland, and by 1931, the Jewish population was in excess of 21,000. In September, 1939, the city was occupied by the Red Army and annexed by the Soviet Union. The Germans occupied the town shortly after their invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Many Jews were immediately rounded up and killed. A Judenrat was soon established to facilitate forced labor and extortion. On November 1, 1941, the Jews were confined to two enclosed ghettos: the first for "productive workers" housed about 15,000; and the second held about 10,000. Beginning in the latter part of November, deportations to Auschwitz and Treblinka began. By March, 1942, only 1,000 Jews remained, and they were sent to the Bialystok ghetto.

Postcard

Below are thumbnails of the front and back of a postcard dated January 26, 1941, from Soviet occupied Grodno to a prisoner, Abram Domoschewizky (prisoner #1048) at a Judenlager (Jewish forced labor camp) in the Biala Podlaska ghetto in the Lublin District Poland. Most of these prisoners ended up in Sobibor or Treblinka. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Postcard" in the left frame to return.

References

Spector, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust (2001), P. 455-58

Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Macmillan Publishing Company (1990), P. 619-21

http://yad-vashem.org.il/about_holocaust/lost_worlds/grodno/grodno_during_ww1.html

http://www.grodnoonline.com/lost_worlds/section_1_test.html

Ghetto

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