The Janowska camp

The Janowska camp ID: 192

History of the Janowska camp in Lviv (1941-1944)

Історія

Today, the sites of a former camp and the ghetto in Lviv are part of urban public space. However, they hardly reveal anything about the tragedy of killing Jewish population of the city.

History of the Janowska camp in Lviv is the topography of several terror sites located nearby. The camp included two parts — a branch of the German Equipment Factory (Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke, DAW) and a later established Zwangsarbeitslager-Lemberg, ZAL-L.

Located on the outskirts of the city, the Janowska camp was directly connected with the Lviv ghetto where from the Jews were sent to slave labour or to immediate death. The camp was a key part of the terror machine in the occupied Lviv. It was the mass murder machine provided, among others, through the Security Police and SD, Criminal Police, or the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and the Jewish Employment Bureau (Arbeitsamt Lemberg Judeneinsatz). Within the ghetto, there was operating a Jewish Police Service (Judischer Ordnungsdienst).

Right opposite the ZAL-L, there was a Kleparów station, where from thousands of Jews were transported to death camps in Bełżec and Sobibór.

Throughout the entire period of camp operations, mass killings have also been taking place in the Piaski close by. The Nazi tried to erase the traces of the crimes by establishing the entire group of prisoners who were digging out and burning the murdered bodies, while grinding their bones into powder.

The scale of the crime could not be wiped out but the exact number of victims remained unknown. According to various estimates, about 200,000 Jews from Lviv and the surroundings passed through the site. Dozens of thousands perished in the camp.

At the same time, the history of the Janowska camp is about individual human stories. Few managed to survive through the camp liquidation, while even fewer names and personal stories were documented.

The map marks the sites related to the Janowska camp and the Holocaust in Lviv, as well as presents personal stories of survival and resistance of Leon Wells, Boris and Dorota Pliskin, or Bohdan Koch.

Texts by — Waitman Wade Beorn, Taras Martynenko, Andriy Usach.

People

Zygmunt Edel – A construction engineer, born on 4 April 1909 in Lviv, in the family of Mendel Edel, a clerk, and Fania Spiegel.
Jozeph Menker – A carpenter who lived in Lviv and was hiding in Antonina Żyłowska's apartment during the Nazi occupation.
Leon Wells (Weliczker) – An American engineer of Jewish origin, a prisoner of the Janowska camp and a member of the so-called "death squad", about which he left detailed memories.

Organizations

  • Jewish Order Service (JOD)

    Jewish Order Service (JOD)

    The Jewish Order Service (ger. Judischer Ordnungsdienst, JOD) was a series of police units that operated in General Government territory. German occupation authorities established the JOD to carry out their commands and maintain order in Jewish residential districts.

    Детальніше
  • Criminal Police

    Criminal Police

    Criminal Police (ger. Kriminalpolizei, abbr. Kripo) was a police force that operated in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories. The Kripo held investigations and engaged in operative and investigatory work in criminal cases.

    Детальніше
  • Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

    Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

    Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (ger. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, UAP) was a police formation in the territory of the General Government, formed by the occupation authorities as an auxiliary police body in communities with predominantly Ukrainian population.

    Детальніше

Автор(ка): Waitman Wade Beorn, Taras Martynenko, Andriy Usach