Around 1,500 people were seized and locked up in the Lublin Zamek⁹⁵ (a prison).
After they had been kept in the Zamek for a few days, a large number of them
were released in exchange for payment. The others [4] were supposed to be
marched off to the Bug,⁹⁶ but the order never came.
The artisans among the prisoners remained permanent forced labourers.
They work in “Lipowy Square,”⁹⁷ where they perform various tasks for
low wages.
The biggest round-up in the city was carried out in February 1940 to get
hold of workers for the labour camps in Puławy and Hrubieszów.⁹⁸
People in the city became aware of the approaching round-up in advance.
All men aged 16 to 60 tried to hide, as best they could. For this purpose, hiding
places were prepared in the houses, and a “technique” was adopted whereby
someone kept watch and alerted people at the appropriate moment, when danger
threatened and the khapers⁹⁹ (Jewish police) were close or about to fall
on the endangered house.
However, not everyone managed to hide. The Lublin poor were caught
and dragged off mercilessly, mainly the refugees from Kalisz, Łódź, Sieradz,
Zduńska Wola, Złoczew, and other small towns. Once again, the sons of
the wealthy managed to buy their way out through Mr Kestenberg and
remained sitting at home, while the few broken and economically ruined
refugees and poor inhabitants of Lublin were taken to gruelling work in
the camps.
95 (Polish) castle.
96 During World War II, until Hitler broke the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR in June 1941, the River Bug served as the border between the territories occupied by the German and Russian armies.
97 Probably reference to the labour camp at Lipowa Street 7. See footnote 74.
98 Camp in Hrubieszów, one of ten labour camps whose inmates built the ChełmHrubieszów-Mircze-Sokal road near the border with the USSR. Established in 1940, it had approx. 150 Jewish inmates. See J. Marszałek, Obozy pracy, pp. 67, 143. Camp in Puławy, probably also a reference to the labour camp which was responsible for building the PuławyKurów or Puławy-Kazimierz-Poniatowa road. It had approx. 100 Jewish inmates. Ibidem, pp. 68, 150.
99 (Yiddish) grabbers. The word was originally applied to the press gangs who seized young Jews for military service in the Tsarist empire. Here the same word is used for those who seized Jews for forced labour (very often to replace exempted sons of the wealthy).
