Radom Ghetto
| The Radom Ghetto | |
|---|---|
Street in the Radom Ghetto, c. 1940–1941
 west of Majdanek concentration camp |
|
| Location | Radom, German-occupied Poland |
| Incident type | Imprisonment, mass shooting, forced labor, starvation, deportations to death camps |
| Perpetrators | Nazi SS, Orpo police battalions |
| Victims | 33,000 Jews |
Radom Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up in March 1941 by Nazi Germany in the city of Radom during occupation of Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Polish Jews. It was closed off from the outside officially in April 1941. A year and a half later, the liquidation of the ghetto began in August 1942, and ended in July 1944, with approximately 30,000–32,000 victims (men, women and children) deported aboard Holocaust trains to their deaths at the Treblinka extermination camp.
In the invasion of Poland, the city of Radom was overrun by the German forces on September 8, 1939. The total population was 81,000 at that time of which 25,000 were Jewish. On November 30, 1939 the SS-Gruppenführer Fritz Katzmann from Selbstschutz who led the murder operations earlier in Wrocław, and in Katowice, was appointed the Higher SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of occupied Radom. His arrival was followed by wonton violence and plunder for personal gain. Katzmann ordered the execution of Jewish leaders right away. Before the creation of a ghetto, many Jews were pressed into forced labor. One of their first tasks on German orders was to rebuild the prewar Polish Łucznik Arms Factory damaged in the attack, to meet the German military needs. The factory served as the major local Nazi employer throughout the war.
The Germans forced the Jewish community to pay contributions, and seized their valuables and businesses. Nevertheless, the precious metal holdings were already depleted because the Radom Jews – especially the Jewish women from "Wizo" – made massive donations to Polish air-force fund four months before the invasion. Even the least fortunate Jews purchased air-defense bonds with pride until May 1939.
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