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German occupation authorities confined and deported Jewish communities across Poland and western Ukraine during World War II. Wartime photographs from 1939 to 1942 document ghettos and deportation actions in more than 30 locations, including Olkusz, Kutno, Wisznice, Raciąż, Końskowola, Zawiercie, Siedlce, Lublin, Radom and Lwów.

At Olkusz on July 31, 1940, German police carried out the reprisal remembered as Bloody Wednesday. Men were forced to lie face-down in the market square. Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Hagerman, the town's dayan, or rabbinic judge, was photographed wearing a prayer shawl among German personnel. He was killed at Majdanek in 1942. Other scenes show deportations in Olkusz and snow-covered Zawiercie, bodies being prepared for burial in the Kutno Jewish cemetery, the Siedlce synagogue burning and Jews deported from Vienna at Opole Lubelskie. A few later photographs show postwar exhumation, reburial and memorial scenes.

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Przedbórz [ˈpʂɛdbuʂ] is a town in Radomsko County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,835 inhabitants (2004). Przedbórz is situated on the Pilica River.

A Jewish community is documented to have been established in Przedbórz by 1570. At the beginning of the Second World War, the town was 60% Jewish. Before the Second World War, tourists would travel to Przedbórz to visit the architecturally notable Przedbórz Synagogue.

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Kutno [ˈkutnɔ] is a town in central Poland with 48,000 inhabitants (2005) and an area of 33,6 km². Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Płock Voivodeship (1975-1998). It is the capital of Kutno County.

During the Invasion of Poland of 1939, in and around the town, Polish armies under General Tadeusz Kutrzeba conducted an offensive that was later named the Battle of the Bzura.

Kutno is one of the most important railroad junctions in Poland. Two main lines cross there (Łódź - Toruń and Warsaw - Poznań).

Updated 31/03/2009

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Wisznice is a village in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Wisznice. It lies approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) south of Biała Podlaska and 75 km (47 mi) north-east of the regional capital Lublin.

updated 31/03/2009





Three Soviet POWs who were captured near Wisznice, stand with their hands tied behind their back. They were later executed in the Lyniewski Forest.

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Wurzburg - In the period of Nazi rule, almost the whole Jewish and Gypsy population of the city was wiped out.

updated 31/03/2009

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Tomaszow Lubelski

In the course of the Holocaust, the Nazi Germans first placed the Jews in a ghetto established in the town, then exterminated them in 1942 at Belzec death camp located a few kilometers south of the town.

Updated 31/03/2009

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Wilno/Vilnius ghetto

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Siedlce is a town in eastern Poland

Updated 31/03/2009



A Jewish boy wearing an armband wakes up in a cart full of corpses that is being transferred from the Siedlce ghetto hospital to the Jewish cemetery for burial


Germans serving in Reserve Police Battalion 101 publicly humiliate a Jewish man by forcing him to pose in a prayer shawl in a crouching position with his hands up




Jews are led through the streets of the town on their way to the railroad station during a deportation action from the Siedlce ghetto

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Ciechanów is a town in North Poland

Before World War II, it was home to a large Jewish community. During the war many Polish Jews and resistance fighters were executed by the Germans in the castle. The town was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939 and known as Zichenau in German. It was the capital of Regierungsbezirk Zichenau, a subdivision of the Province of East Prussia. The territory was restored to Poland after the war.

These pictures shows the jews being rounded up to be taken to and inside the castle. The colour picture is a modern day image of the castle

updated 31/03/2009

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Olkusz [ˈɔlkuʂ] is a town in south Poland with 37,696 inhabitants (2004).

Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Katowice Voivodeship (1975-1998), it is the capital of Olkusz County.


Jewish Holocaust

One of the most famous images of the holocaust is of Rabbi Moshe Hagerman the Dayan - Jewish municipal chief judge, dressed in his Talit and Teffilin and being abused by German soldiers. This image was later identified by people who survived the war and the incident, as an image from the 'Bloody Wednesday of Olkusz', taken on July 31, 1940.

The plight of the Jews during this year until deported, can be read online in various sites. Most of the 4097 Jews listed by the Germans, were eventually deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and perished there in the Holocaust. About 250 Jews of Olkusz and its surroundings, survived the war.

this is the image mentioned above,
Below are other images from Bloody Wednesday



updated 31/03/2009