Siedlce Ghetto
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The Siedlce Ghetto (Polish: Getto w Siedlcach), was a World War II Jewish ghetto set up by Nazi Germany in the city of Siedlce in occupied Poland, 92 kilometres (57 mi) east of Warsaw.[lower-alpha 1] The ghetto was closed from the outside in early October 1941. Some 12,000 Polish Jews were imprisoned there for the purpose of persecution and exploitation.[1] Conditions were appalling; epidemics of typhus and scarlet fever raged. Beginning 22 August 1942 during the most deadly phase of the Holocaust in occupied Poland, around 10,000 Jews were rounded up – men, women and children – gathered at the Umschlagplatz,[2][lower-alpha 2] and deported to Treblinka extermination camp aboard Holocaust trains.[3] Thousands of Jews were brought in from the ghettos in other cities and towns. In total, at least 17,000 Jews were annihilated in the process of ghetto liquidation.[2] Hundreds of Jews were shot on the spot during the house-to-house searches, along with staff and patients of the Jewish hospital.[1]
Siedlce Ghetto | |
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Also known as | Siedlce Ghetto |
Location | Siedlce, German-occupied Poland |
Date | June 1941 – November 1942 |
Incident type | Imprisonment, starvation, mass shootings, mass deportations |
Organizations | Nazi SS |
Victims | 12,000–17,000 Polish Jews; an unknown number of Roma people |
Memorials | The Jewish cemetery in Siedlce |
Over 1,500 persons were temporarily spared death in order to continue supplying slave labour for the five camps set up locally. They were deported to Treblinka from the so-called "little ghetto" before the end of 1942.[2] Only a few hundred Jews survived in hiding until the German withdrawal from Siedlce.[2]