Establishment of the Jewish Quarter

A few months later the order establishing the Jewish Quarter (Juedisches Wohnviertel) was published and paved the way for the Ghetto. It meant that the Jews were separated from the Aryan population. The Jewish Quarter began from Kilinskiego Street (the Lachowicz Bookshop) to its end at the corner of Iwaszkiewicza-Drohobyca Street). It continued on the other side along the Stojalowskiego Boulevard, Zamkowa, Rynek, Berka Joselowicze, Kusnierska, Lwowska; Batorego to Zielona Street.

The German District Officer had ordered the people of the Jewish Quarter to form a Judenrat (Jewish Council). This council had a double task. It was to maintain contact with the German Command, carry out its orders, and handle all the internal affairs of the Jews themselves, who from that day forward would constitute a separate body entirely cut off from the Aryan population. This Jewish Council was chiefly intended to serve as a bridge for passing on the decrees of the Nazi Command to the Jews. The Council was given authority to collect taxes from the Jews, and establish a Jewish police (Ordnungsdienst) which would be under its orders. The Council was provided food for the community. The Jewish Council Building was the on the corner of May 3rd and Potockiego Streets. Departments were set up for taxes, housing, furniture and food. There were secretaries with telephones, typewriters, storehouses and shops. A complete state apparatus down to the last detail.

The Jews of the Aryan Quarter were transferred to the Jewish Quarter and crowded into the apartments of the Jews already living there. My grandfather and his family had to move from their current apartment to one on the Rynek (market square), opposite my great-grandmother's property.

At this time the Quarter contained about 12,000 persons. The Jewish Council was ordered to make room for another 11,000 persons who had been expelled from the small towns of the district, which were thus made Judenrein.