Janowska

Janowska was a Nazi labor, transit and concentration camp established in September 1941 on the outskirts of Lvov, Poland (today Ukraine).

Background - The Lwów Ghetto
The city of Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), was occupied by the Soviet Union in September 1939, under the terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact during World War II. At that time, there were over 200,000 Jews residing in Lwów. Over 100,000 of these Jews were refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland. The German army later managed to take Lvov away from the Soviet army in June 1941, after the Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union's territories.

During the Lvov/Lemberg massacre of June, 1941, the retreating Soviets killed several thousand mostly Ukrainian nationalist prisoners who were being held in several prisons throughout Lvov. The Germans blamed the massacre on the Jews and used the NKVD's atrocity as propaganda to incite a pogrom in which over 4,000 Jews were killed. A further 7,000 Jews were murdered by the German Einsatzgruppen.

"Die Deutsche Wochenschau" newsreel of July 1941: Townspeople watch, shocked and tearful, as dead bodies from Lemberg (Lvov) massacre are carried from the prison in which they were killed and laid aside in lines for identification. The retreating Soviets had massacred the mostly Ukrainian nationalist prisoners. The Germans blamed the massacre on the Jews -- "Innocent victims of Bolsheviks," says narrator. Bullet-pocked, smoking buildings, grisly pans of bloody, mangled corpses. Wailing woman, stunned onlookers. Poor quality HA views of man being arrested, trying to kick himself free. CU propagandistic shots of Jewish men who "helped" (narrator) being rounded up, arrested. Another "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" newsreel of July 1941: Brief HA pan of city of Lvov. In bright sun, Jewish men (some bearded, with yarmulkes) are forced to carry and lay out the bodies of those murdered by the GPU/NKVD [not Jewish victims]. Very gruesome: some corpses have no heads, some are bloated, disintegrating bodies. MS pans of bodies splayed out. SS soldiers look on, clutching kerchiefs to their mouths.

The onset of the Nazi regime let loose a wave of antisemitic feeling. Encouraged by the German army to perform violent and brutal attacks against the Jews of Lwów, local Ukrainian nationalists murdered about 4,000 Jews during a pogrom in early July 1941. On July 25-27, 1941, a second pogrom took place, known as the "Petliura Days", named for Symon Petliura, infamous for organising anti-Jewish pogroms in the Ukraine following World War I. For three straight days, Ukrainian militants went on a murderous rampage through the Jewish districts of Lwów. Groups of Jews were herded out to the Jewish cemetery and to the Lunecki prison where they were shot. More than 2,000 Jews were killed and thousands more were injured.

In early November 1941, the Nazis closed off portions of the city of Lwów into a ghetto. German police shot and killed thousand of elderly and sick Jews as they crossed the bridge on Peltewna Street, while they were on their way to the ghetto. In March 1942, the Nazis began to deport Jews from the ghetto to the Belzec extermination camp. By August 1942, more than 65,000 Jews had been deported from the Lwów ghetto and killed. In early 1943, the Germans destroyed and liquidated the ghetto.

The Janowska labour and transit camp
In addition to the Lvov ghetto, the Nazis set up a factory in September 1941 on Janowska Street in the suburbs of Lwów. This factory became part of the network of factories that belonged to the German Armament Works, which was owned and operated by the SS. Jews who worked at this factory were used as forced laborers, mainly working in carpentry and metalwork. In October 1941, the Nazis established a concentration camp beside the factory, which housed the forced laborers. Thousands of Jews from the Lwów ghetto were forced to work as slave laborers in this camp. When the Lwów ghetto was liquidated by the Nazis, the ghetto's inhabitants who were fit for work were sent to the Janowska camp; the rest were deported to the Belzec camp for extermination.

During 1942, Janowska also served as a transit camp for the "Final Solution", with the mass deportations of Polish Jews to killing centers. At Janowska a selection process was conducted, similar to those at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Majdanek extermination camp. The minority of these Jews who were deemed fit for work remained at Janowska for forced labor. The rest were either deported to Belzec for extermination there, or were shot at the Piaski ravine, located just north of the camp. In summer 1942, thousands of Jews (mostly from the Lvov ghetto), were deported to Janowska and killed in the Piaski ravine.

Liquidation of the Janowska camp
In November 1943, the Nazis commenced evacuating the inmates of the Janowska camp. As the Nazis tried to destroy evidence of the mass killings at Janowska, they forced inmates to open the mass graves and burn the bodies. On November 19, 1943, inmates staged an uprising against the Nazis and a mass escape attempt. A few inmates actually succeeded in escaping from the camp, but most were recaptured by the Nazis and killed. The SS staff and their local auxiliaries murdered at least 6,000 Jews who had survived the uprising killings, as well as Jews in other forced labor camps in Galicia, at the time of the Janowska camp's liquidation.