During 1940–41 the situation in Bedzin
was considered somewhat better than in most other places in
occupied Poland (Bedzin and its neighbor *Sosnowiec were
for a long time the only large cities in Poland where no ghetto
was established). For this reason thousands of Jews from central
Poland sought refuge there. Several thousand Jews from
the district were expelled and forced to reside in Bedzin,
among them all the Jews from Oswiecim (German name –
Auschwitz), who arrived in April–May 1941, prior to the construction
of the Auschwitz camp. About 6,500 Jews in the town
were sent to forced labor camps and others were put to work
locally making clothing and boots for the German army. In
May and June 1942 the first deportations took place in which
2,400 “nonproductive” Jews were sent to their death in Auschwitz.
On Aug. 15, 1942, about 8,000–10,000 Jews were sent
to Auschwitz, while others were shot on the spot for disobeying
German orders.
In spring 1943 a ghetto was established in
the suburb of Kamionka. On June 22, 1943, 4,000 Jews were
deported and on August 1, 1943, the final liquidation of the
ghetto began. In all, about 30,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz
from Bedzin. Only a limited number of Jews survived the concentration
camps by hiding. The Jewish underground resistance
in Bedzin became active at the beginning of 1940.
They circulated illegal papers and made contact with the Warsaw
Ghetto underground. After the establishment of the ghetto,
the underground concentrated mainly on preparations for
armed resistance. A unified fighting organization came into
being with strong ties with the Jewish Fighting Organization
of the Warsaw Ghetto.
On Aug. 3, 1943, during the last deportation,
some armed resistance broke out. Among the fighters
who fell in battle was the leading Jewish partisan Frumka Plotnicka.
Deportees from Bedzin played a major role in the underground
and uprising in the Auschwitz death camp (among
them – Jeshajahu Ehrlich, Moshe Wygnanski, Ala Gertner, and
Rosa Sapirstein). [ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3]
Poland