History of Rzeszow

Until the outbreak of World War II the Jews of Rzeszów numbered 14,000, more than one-third of the total population. The town was occupied by the German Army on 10 September 1939 and was renamed as "Reichshof". German persecution of the Jews began almost immediately; by the end of 1939, there were 10 forced labour camps in the Rzeszów region and many Jews became slave labourers. Jews were forced to live in the Gestapo-controlled ghetto. Many Jews managed to flee to Soviet-occupied Poland. By June 1940, the number of Jews in Rzeszów had decreased to 11,800, of whom 7,800 were pre-war residents of the city; the rest were refugees from surrounding villages. Life in the ghetto was impossible and hundreds died. During the war some 20,000 Jews were murdered in the ghetto in Rzeszów. This number includes thousands who were sent to Rzeszów only to be deported or murdered soon after arrival. In the fall of 1943 most Jewish slave labor was transported in Holocaust trains to the newly reopened Szebnie concentration camp. A month later, on 5 November 1943, some 2,800 Jews were sent from there, to meet their demise in Auschwitz. Of Rzeszów's 14,000 Jews, only 100 survived the war in Rzeszów itself, hiding all over Poland, and in various camps. After the war an additional 600 Rzeszów Jews returned from the Soviet Union. Almost all of them subsequently left the city and the country