the family. Mrs Rozenberg’s mother too. Almost everyone has been expelled,
about 200 people. Those who received special residence permits have remained.
Write back quickly. L”.⁶²⁰
The Germans are telling those interned in the camp that they will be
sent to Russia (a new term for the hereafter . . .)
Zawiercie – In the past week the situation of the Jewish population has become
unbearable: persecution and oppression at every turn. The Jews there are under
threat of total expulsion.⁶²¹
Kraków – On Friday 5 June an official pogrom took place in Kraków; shots
were fired in the streets of the ghetto; there are more than 100 Jewish martyrs.
Apart from that, the Hitlerite murderers massacred Jewish babies.
Eyewitnesses recount that the murderers smashed the children’s heads on
the cobblestones. Several thousand Jews were deported.⁶²²
[2] Międzyrzec – On 18 May the Judenvernichtungsbrigade⁶²³ arrived in
Międzyrzec. They promptly shot 53 Jews in the street; those shot included klei
kodesh.⁶²⁴ The murderers left in return for 5 kg of gold.
Kock⁶²⁵ – In the second half of May members of the Sonderkommando shot
12 Jews. They left the shtetl in return for 2 kg of gold.
Piotrków – On 18 May 23 Jews were shot, among them a kehilla official
(Szternfeld) and Michał Hertz’s daughter.
620 Quoted in full here is a letter of Luba Rozenberg from Dubienka to Frania Zalcman in the Warsaw ghetto. The information preceding Luba’s letter comes partly from earlier correspondence (letters of 23 May and 1 June 1942; see ARG I 710 (I/568/1), I 727 (I/568/2).), as well as from other sources unknown to us. Noteworthy is the similarity between the first sentences of the note and the information regarding Dubienka included in the bulletin of 5 May (Doc. 51). For more information on the deportations from Dubienka, see Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, pp. 630–632.
621 On 16–17 June, a total of 1,650–1,800 Jews were deported from Zawiercie to Auschwitz. See Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, pp. 174–176.
622 The first deportation from the Kraków ghetto to the death camp in Bełżec took place from 1–8 June 1942. See Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, pp. 527–530.
623 (Ger.) “Jew-destruction brigade”, another name of the Einsatzgruppen.
624 (Heb.) “instruments of holiness”, i.e. rabbis and other religious functionaries, such as cantors.
625 Kock (Radzyń Podlaski County).
