The Ghetto and the Liquidation

On December 1st, 1942, large posters consisting of photographs and signed by Hans Frank of the General Gouvernement announced the establishment of the Ghetto in Stryj. Entrance and exit was permitted only to Jews with work cards stamped by the Gestapo. Those breaking the law were subject to the death penalty. The Aryans were warned not to approach the Ghetto limits. Selling or giving food or offering Jews any kind of help would be punished by hanging. The Ghetto area consisted of the following streets: Berka Joselowicza, Kusnierska, Krawiecka and Lwowska. It had two main entrances, in the Borek Joselowicza and Lwowska streets. Thick wooden posts were set up on both pavements and logs were placed as a barrier which were raised when necessary.

Policemen watched the gates day and night. Streets that led to the Aryan quarter were blocked with high wooden fences. The Ghetto was set up with the definite purpose of being destroyed.

The liquidation of the Ghetto began on June 10, 1943. German troops went house to house seeking victims and destroying buildings. They threw incendiary grenades into suspected bunkers or flooded them with water and then shot any survivors. The offices of the Jewish Council were burned and the members were shot along with the council police. In early July the Altstoff and Wasserwirtscaft camps were liquidated with other small camps. On July 20, 1943 the A.S.A. and H.K.P. camps were liquidated a few days later so was the Heeresbarrackenwerke (where my father and grandfather had worked), the largest labor camp in Stryj.

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