• Memorial to the Victims of the Ghetto
In the small Polish town of Izbica several memorial stones at the Jewish cemetery remember the city's approximately 5,000 Jews who were deported and murdered by the Germans. For more than 12,000 other Jews Izbica became a transit ghetto to the extermination camps of Sobibór and Bełżec.
Image: Izbica, 1941, Street in the Izbica ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger
Izbica, 1941, Street in the Izbica ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger

Image: Izbica, 2010, Memorial stone for the former Jewish community and the victims of the ghetto, Aung
Izbica, 2010, Memorial stone for the former Jewish community and the victims of the ghetto, Aung
Izbica is located in central Poland near Lublin. The place was first mentioned in the 15th century. From the 18th century onwards it was almost exclusively Jews who settled there and Izbica received its town charter. The number of inhabitants grew rapidly and Izbica developed into a typical Shtetl: Besides other religious institutions the synagogue was the central place for the predominantly Yiddish speaking community. In 1939 Izbica had about 6,000 inhabitants, more than 5,000 of them Jews. With the start of World War II. Izbica came under German occupation and the whole surroundings of Lublin became part of the Generalgouvernement. Because of the high Jewish share of the population the whole of Izbica was declared a ghetto by the German administration. The Jews had to wear armbands and had to conduct forced labour. From 1940/41 onwards the German administration deported Jews from Łódź, Głowno, Kalisz and Lublin to Izbica. From March 1942 onwards the SS murdered under the code name »Aktion Reinhardt« almost all the Jews from the Generalgouvernement in the extermination camps of Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka. To gather the victims the SS established transition camps. Since Izbica was located at the railway line to Bełżec, the place became a transit ghetto for thousands of people. Jews from the Generalgouvernement but also from the German Reich, from Bohemia and Slovakia were transported to Izbica from 1942. In spring 1942 about 12,000 Jews lived in the Izbica ghetto under the worst of conditions. At the same time the SS started mass deportations to Bełżec. Almost all were murdered there by the SS.
Image: Izbica, 1941, Street in the Izbica ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger
Izbica, 1941, Street in the Izbica ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger

Image: Izbica, 2010, Memorial stone for the former Jewish community and the victims of the ghetto, Aung
Izbica, 2010, Memorial stone for the former Jewish community and the victims of the ghetto, Aung
Of the approximately 5,000 Jewish members of Izbaca's pre-war community only 14 survived. Between 12,000 and 15,000 Jews were deported via Izbica to the Sobibór and Bełżec extermination camps and murdered there. Hundreds more were shot by members of the SS in Izbica itself.
Image: Izbica, 1941, Jewish men with armbands in the ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger
Izbica, 1941, Jewish men with armbands in the ghetto, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Max Kirnberger

Image: Izbica, 2006, Information panels, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz
Izbica, 2006, Information panels, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz
Only few traces remember the Jewish town of Izbica. After the war a number of memorial stones had been erected at the Jewish cemetery of Izbica. However, for decades the Jewish cemetery remained in a very poor condition. Only in 2006 the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Polish: Fundacji Ochrony Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego) and the film production company Tvschoenfilm had the former Gestapo prison in Izbica demolished: The building had partly been erected with headstones from the Jewish cemetery. SS-men had forced Jews to dismantle the headstones. The headstones returned to the Jewish cemetery of Izbica in 2006; a section of the headstones was attached to the walls of a tomb, the orel (Hebrew literally: tent). The dismantling of the Gestapo building as well as the return of the headstones to the cemetery was recounted by Tvschoenfilm in a documentary. In addition a memorial stone remembering the Jewish community of Izbica was dedicated in November 2006.
Image: Izbica, 2007, Memorial stone for Jews deported from Franconia, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz
Izbica, 2007, Memorial stone for Jews deported from Franconia, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz

Image: Izbica, 2006, Ohel with headstones from the Jewish cemetery, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz
Izbica, 2006, Ohel with headstones from the Jewish cemetery, Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz
Name
Pomnik dla ofiar getta
Address
Cmentarz żydowski (ul. Fabryczna)
22-475 Izbica
Phone
+48 (0) 84 6183034
Fax
+48 (0) 84 6183034
E-Mail
ugizbica@mbnet.pl
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.