Parchment Burning

During Sukkot, 1939, German soldiers forced their way into the synagogue in Siedlce, Poland. They beat the Jews who were praying inside. When people tried to escape, they were shot. Yosef Rubin was killed in this way. ( Association of Siedlcers in Israel ) A few months later, the synagogue was burned to the ground. According to some reports, homeless Jews who had been living in the synagogue died inside. ( Yizkor Book )

Skalat 1942 At the end of August, 1942, the Nazis began deporting the Jews of Skalat. They began with the weakest segments of the population - orphans and the elderly. 600 Jews were brought to the local synagogue, where they were kept overnight. During this time, some of them were killed. The next morning, when it was time to transport the Jews to the extermination camp in Belzec, the dead bodies were thrown onto the truck along with the living. ( Virtual Shtetl ) Testimony from that evening corroborates this. A woman, Mrs. Weissbrod, who had taken the place of her elderly mother in the synagogue reported that "The shul was crowded, suffocating. Screams! Sobs! The old people sigh, cough, clamor and faint. All that time in the heat without even a drop of water. A few of the aged and sick, lacking stamina, had already died." She continues that when the Nazis arrived to load the victims onto trucks, "When all the victims had been loaded aboard the trucks, one of the mil

Kharkov, Ukraine 1941 In late 1941, the Nazis ordered that all Jews in Kharkov relocate to some huts on the outskirts of the city. Those who were not able to relocated were locked into the synagogue on Meshchansky Street. These were mostly elderly, disabled or very young Jews. According to testimony gathered in 1943, "a large number of them from to death and others died of hunger. Altogether 400 persons died in the synagogue building." ( Yad Vashem )

Lubieszow, Ukraine 3 November, 1942 On 3 November, 1942, the Nazis rounded up dozens of Jewish artisans and their families and locked them in the synagogue. One of these Jews, Machmendler, attacked the Nazi commander in a desperate attempt, cutting his throat with a knife. In retaliation for this attack, Machmendler and several other Jews were killed in the synagogue. The rest were shot outside the building. ( Yad Vashem ) A German report from 1945 described the event: "As many as up to 200 Jews were taken under guard to the synagogue, where they were stripped naked and ... abused. Afterward, the Gebietskommissar read aloud a document stating that the Jewish people didn't exist any longer since they all had been annihilated. At that moment a dentist, I don't remember his last name, attacked the Gebietskommissar and wounded him seriously in the throat with a razor; the dentist was killed [on the spot] by blows from [weapon] butts...Others were shot to death between

Krasnosielc 6 September, 1939 The murder of Jews in the Krasnocielc synagogue is somewhat atypical of the Holocaust period. On 6 September 1939, a group of fifty Jewish men were ordered to work repairing a bridge. After they had completed the work, the Jews were locked for the evening in the synagogue. That night, an SS man and a military policeman came into the synagogue and shot all the men to death. Both German men were arrested and brought to trial. The first was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail. The second was sentenced to nine years in prison, though this was eventually reduced to three years upon appeal. The Jews in the synagogue were buried nearby by a neighbor., Mr. Zhilinsky. He described "how the Germans took the bodies of the murdered Jews out of the synagogue and threw them in the ditches beside it and covered them with Torah books, poured some combustible material and set it all on fire." ( Essay by David Shachar )

22 September 1939 Turek, Poland Turek was one in the long list of Polish communities that were occupied by the Nazis in September 1939. On September 22, 1939, a group of Jews were burned to death in the synagogue on Szeroka street. ( Virtual Shtetl ) In Shraga Bar-Sela's telling of the occupation, he mentions the fire in the synagogue but not any loss of life. ( Turek Yizkor Book , p303) Others mention that 600 or 700 Jews were gathered in the synagogue and then deported, but make not mention of killing in the building. As in most places, the murder of Jews was accompanied by humiliations. In a report, General Walter Petzel wrote that "In Turek...a number of Jews were driven into a synagogue, forced to crawl through the bench seats while singing and constantly being beaten by SS men with whips. They were then forced to take down their pants, to be beaten on their naked behinds. One Jew, who out of fear had gone in his pants, was forced to smear excrement in the faces of t

Rakov, Belarus 4 February 1942 The Jews of Rakov were driven into the Koholodnaya Synagogue. They were forced to undress, robbed and beaten. The Germans poured gasoline over the building and ignited it with grenades. 950 people were burned to death in the Rakov synagogue. L. Shaus wrote that "In the shtetl of Rakov they herded 900 Jews into the synagogue and burned them to death. Anyone who tried to escape from the fire was shot with submachine guns." ( The Untold Stories ) Another testimony expands on the events: "The entire Jewish community, 950 souls, was put in the yard of the synagogue. They took ten of the healthiest people and separated them. The rest were taken group by group to the entrance of the synagogue, where they were shot and killed by automatic machine guns. The ten separated people were ordered to throw the individual bodies in the synagogue. As soon as the last of the people were thrown in the synagogue, the ten people were pushed inside withou

Sierpc, Poland September, 1939 The German army entered the town o Sierpc in September, 1939. On the night of the 29th of September, the second night of Sukkot, they set fire to the largest synagogue in town. ( Virtual Shtetl )  Hela Lipstapad-Izakowicz relates that some Jews, her father included, tried to put out the fire but could not do so. One was killed by the Germans during the attempt:  "A certain yeshiva student, the son of Farber, who forced his way into the synagogue with self-sacrifice, was shot by the Germans." ( Yizkor Book ) Another townsperson, Beila Rabinowicz, recalled the awful night:  "I will never forget the great fire that spread through the Jewish streets when the Germans set the synagogue on fire. We ran to a neighbor. From there, we looked out the window. Suddenly, my father shouted, 'Children, look. The Holy Ark is tumbling down.' We heard a shot. Victims who ran to save the Torah scrolls fell."  ( Yizkor Book ) This eve

Jelgava, Latvia July 1941 The Germans occupied the town of Jelgava at the end of June, 1941. In the following month they began to wipe out the town's Jewish community. At one point, one of the synagogues was burned to the ground with Jews inside: "Many of them were forced into the synagogue and burned alive in it." ( Churban Lettland by Max Kaufmann, 111)  As the synagogue burned, the rabbi refused to leave the building. Other Jewish townsmen were forced to stand by outside and witness the it burn. Abram Leiser was one of those killed. He was the butcher and a friend of the rabbi. ( Latvian Jews )

Frysztak, Poland Rosh Hashana, 1939 Frysztak was occupied by German troops on 8 September, 1939. A week later, on the second day of Rosh Hashana, the Germans surrounded the synagogue, killed some of the worshipers, and burned the Torahs. ( Kehilalinks , Virtual Shtetl ) "They burst into the worship places and killed a few congregants, set on fire the holy books and took with them four or five Jews." ( Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities ) Leon Gersten, who grew up in Frysztak, recalls the event: "We all laid down on the floor and started praying Shema Yisrael. After killing a few Jews, they let us out - that was our first introduction to the Germans." ( matzav.com ) Although none of the sources I have seen mention the names of the victims, I did discover one on the Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Leibush Arie Pantzer, who was 16 at the time. His parents were Mordechai Pantzer and Chana Klotz. On the witness sheet his brother submitte

15 September 1939 Dynow, Poland Like many towns in the region, Dynow was occupied by the German army on 11 September, 1939. On the first day hundreds of Jews were rounded up and killed. That year the prayers on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were especially harried. After the first round of killing, the Germans continued to torture and execute local Jews. They decided to burn one of the synagogues as well. "They then took all the holy books from the study center and the other synagogue and spread them out on the floor. They then threw an incendiary bomb and shortly thereafter the entire synagogue was on fire. The flames reached the sky and lit the entire hamlet and the horizon with a red light that terrified everybody." While the synagogue was burning, the Germans threw three or four Jews inside, where they perished. "The screams of the old men were heard along the entire street of the synagogue. ( Destruction of Dynow, Sanko, Dubiecko , ed. David Moritz) According t

19 December, 1939 Przemysl, Poland On September 14, 1939, the town of Przemysl was occupied by the German army. The town was home to 24,000 Jews. ( Yad Vashem ) Although control of the city was later transferred to the Soviets, the Germans made sure to first attack the Jews of the community. They burnt down the Old Synagogue, the Klois, the Hassidic prayer house, the Tempel Synagogue and parts of the Jewish quarter. ( Holocaust Research Project ) According to a  JTA  report, a few months later the Nazis locked 30 Jews into their synagogue and burnt it to the ground. This was reported on the basis of "Polish sources." However, neither Yad Vashem nor the Przemysl Yizkor Book make any mention of Jews being killed in the synagogue. They instead mention only the burning of the synagogues in September 1939. It could be that the report in December actually refers to the events of September, or perhaps the Polish papers were trying to rally support against the Nazis but repor

Zelechow, Poland 13 September 1939 The Nazis entered Zelechow on September 12, 1939. They immediately set fire to a number of buildings. The following day, the synagogue was torched and a member of the town council, Hayyim Palhendler, was trapped inside. ( Pinkas Hakehillot ) Godl Nachtajler recalls that the rest of the Jews were evacuated from the synagogue first: "The Germans cast out everyone from the synagogue, leaving only one old Jew, in order to burn him later together with the synagogue." Mendel Korcarz recalled that the fire took place on the second day of Rosh Hashana: "On the second day of Rosh Hashana they set our big and beautiful synagogue on fire. A black smoke rose from the burning Torah scrolls straight to heaven. In the town of Zelechow there was darkness." Once the synagogue was destroyed, the Jews had nowhere to pray on Yom Kippur. Again, Nachtajler recalls: "On Yom Kippur they made minyanim in different houses and prayer quiet

Vishnevo, Poland 30 August 1942 The town of Vishneva was occupied by the USSR in 1939. Jewish institutions were closed and Jewish books were removed from the local library. However, when the Germans broke their truce with the Soviet Union in 1941 and occupied the town, things went from bad to worse. Jewish men were given forced labor, and some were murdered in the streets. The number of Jews in town was reduced to about 1,000 and they were forced into a small ghetto around the synagogue. These conditions lasted over a year. On August 30, 1942, German soldiers moved into position around the ghetto. The Jews were gathered in the courtyard of the synagogue. Shimon Peres , the former Prime Minister and President of Israel, who was born in Vishnevo, tells the story of how the congregation was murdered: "The rest arrived at the synagogue that was made of wood. Its doors were locked. They were all burned alive. That was also the last day of Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, my grandfather, my m

Yesterday, Stan Lee died at age 95. He was a major force in the comic book superhero world, creating Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, and many other characters. In addition to fantastic stories, comic books have been used to address historic events. Many of the major creative forces in comics were Jewish , and some have speculated that the volatile and powerless position of the Jews was part of the driving force behind creating superheroes who could right wrongs. This year, a book on comics about the Holocaust was published, called We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust . One of the comics featured was called "Thou Shalt Not Kill", from Weird War Tales #8, drawn by Steve Harper. It tells the story of German soldiers attacking Jews in Prague and the Jews pleading with the Golem for help. The story features three panels depicting the Germans forcing Jews into a synagogue and then setting it on fire. "Drive them in and lock the doors behind them!" yells th

Berlin, Germany 10 November, 1938 Kristallnacht This week marked 80 years since Kristallnacht. While hundreds of synagogues were defiled or burned and some Jews were killed during the two days of rioting, it is hard to confirm whether anyone was killed inside the many synagogues that were destroyed. In Berlin, the Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue was one of the many to be torched. It had been built only 8 years earlier, the only one constructed in Berlin during the brief rule of the Weimar Republic. On Kristallnacht it was burned to the ground and never rebuilt. The synagogue rabbi, Manfred Swarsensky, recalls rushing to the site at 2 am. "Then, I got up, ran to the synagogue, pushed my hat way down in my face so as not to be recognized by anyone, and there I saw German SS troopers pour gasoline into the interior of the building and over the walls, and also German firemen stand on adjoining buildings so as to prevent that they be burnt down and so they poured water over

27 June, 1941 Bialystok, Poland Great Synagogue In my introduction to this blog I wrote that  "As long as there have been synagogues, there have been Jews who were rounded up and slaughtered while inside." This is actually inaccurate. Jews were rarely rounded up and put in synagogues. Almost always, they either fled to the synagogue on their own, or were already present in the synagogue when attacked. The Great Synagogue in Bialystok was different. It was the unadulterated nightmare. The synagogue was built in the early 20th century. It was impressive, with three domes flanking the entrance and naves.  On 27 June, 1941, Nazi troops moved into position around the plaza adjacent to the Great Synagogue. They gathered the Jews from the neighborhood, herding them - two thousand people - into the building.  "Groups of poor sods were brought from all directions and pushed towards the Great Synagogue which was burning with great flames, with ear-piercing sc

9 September, 1939 Bedzin, Poland Ruins of Bedzin Synagogue My grandmother was born in Bedzin, Poland in 1921. Her family was fortunate enough to immigrate to Canada before the outbreak of World War II, but many Jews remained in Bedzin when the Nazis marched into town on September 4, 1939. The Nazis quickly went to work rounding up notable residents for interrogation, plundering goods and humiliating Jews by shaving their beards. Others were shot and had their bodies mutilated. However, the Jews of Bedzin were not yet sure what to expect from the occupiers. By the end of the week, they knew. That Shabbat, as Jews gathered to pray in the Great Synagogue of Bedzin, the Nazis broke into the buildings adjacent to the synagogue, threw in hand grenades and order the Jews out. About 200 Jews ran to the synagogue for refuge, but the Nazis barred the doors,  set fire to the building and burned it to the ground . Jews who managed to escape the flames were shot by German soldiers. A f