ZAGŁADA

880 BIALYSTOK REGIONENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAMPS AND GHETTOS, 1933–1945 diately following the fi re.Others note that the Germans in May 1942 fi rst deported to the Suchowolaghetto between 100 and 300 Jews, largely those they deemed unfi t for forcedlabor. They next ordered the remaining 200 members of the community to residein the two buildings, the only habitable structures in Dabrowa.4 The Jews inthe Dabrowa ghetto were conscripted for labor, widening and paving the roadfrom Sokółka to Janów Sokólski, together with labor brigades from the Sokółkaghetto. The Dabrowa Jews likely worked on the more northern section of theroad, from Makowlany to Dabrowa. On November 2, 1942, the Germans liquidatedthe Dabrowa ghetto. They ordered the surviving Jews into marching order andcommanded them to run most of the way to a transit camp, just south of Grodno,located in Kiełbasin, about 28 kilometers (17. 4 miles) from Dabrowa. Those whocould not keep up were shot.5 At Kiełbasin, the Dabrowa Jews were re unitedwith surviving family members from the Suchowola ghetto, among the 22,000 to29,000 local Jews imprisoned at the transit camp. On December 14, 1942, theGermans drove the Dabrowa community from Kiełbasin to the train station atŁasosna and sent them from there to the Treblinka extermination camp. The nextday, at Treblinka, all but 1 perished there. The survivor, Sonia Grabinska-Lewkowicz, was among a handful of women held back from the transport to work atthe camp laundry, cleaning and pressing the uniforms of the Ukrainian guards.She also is the only woman known to have survived the August 1943 Treblinkauprising.6 Grabinska- Lewkowicz returned to Dabrowa after its liberation in thesummer of 1944 only to discover a Polish family constructing a home on theproperty of her parents. She spent the winter of 1944– 1945 with another localPolish family. Five other Jewish survivors, who had fl ed to the Soviet Unionshortly after June 22, 1941, also returned to Dabrowa. After a group of Polesmurdered David Weinstein, one of the returnees, the few remaining Jews migratedto larger cities before leaving Poland for other countries, most notablyIsrael.7 SOURCES Published primary and secondary sources include SergeKlarsfeld, ed., Documents Concerning the Destruction of the Jews of Grodno1941– 1944 (New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985), 1:447– 449 (testimonyof Sonia Lewkowicz); Michael A. Nevins, Dubrowa. Dabrowa Białostocka. Memorialto a Shtetl, 2nd ed. (River Valley, NJ: M.A. Nevins, 2000); and the Dabrowaentries in Shmuel Spector and Bracha Freundlich, eds., Pinkas ha- kehilot.Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Poland, vol. 8, Vilna, Bialystok,Nowogrodek (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2005), pp. 244– 246; and Arnon Rubin, TheRise and Fall of Jewish Communities in Poland and Their Relics Today, vol. 1,District Bialystok (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Press, 2006), pp. 62– 65.Also valuable is the extensive explication of the YVA testimonies by SoniaLewkowicz, in Yoram Lubling, Twice- Dead: Moshe Y. Lubling, the Ethics ofMemory, and the Treblinka Revolt (New York: Peter Lang, 2007). DABROWABIAŁOSTOCKA (AKA DABROWA GRODZIENSKA) Pre- 1939: Dabrowa (Yiddish: Dombrova), town,Sokółka powiat, Białystok województwo, Poland; 1939– 1941: Dombrovo raioncenter, Belostok oblast’, Belorus sian SSR; 1941– 1944: Dombrowa (from late1942, Gartenstadt), Kreis Sokolka, Distrikt Bialystok; post- 1998: DabrowaBiałostocka, województwo podlaskie, Poland Dabrowa is located about 64kilometers (40 miles) northnortheast of Białystok and 32 kilometers (20 miles)west of Grodno. Its alternate name, Dabrowa Grodzienska, which dates to 1842,was used after World War II in offi cial documentation until at least 1950.Subsequently renamed Dabrowa Białostocka, the town today lies about 20kilometers (12.4 miles) west of the Polish border with the Republic of Belarus.In 1921, the population of the larger Dabrowa gmina stood at 3,015, including1,218 Jewish residents. The Jews were concentrated in the town of Dabrowa,where they made up 90 percent of the overall population. By the outbreak ofWorld War II the Jewish population of the town was less than 1,200. InSeptember 1939, the fi rst month of World War II, the Germans occupied Dabrowafor less than two weeks before evacuating it to make way for the Red Army.During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on June 22, 1941, aWehrmacht unit destroyed the Jewish homes outside of Dabrowa on June 25, as itcrushed a pocket of Soviet re sis tance there. When the Germans entered thetown early the next morning, the military commander claimed that the Jews hadmurdered a German offi - cer the eve ning before. In retribution, he orderedhis men to set Da browa on fi re. The number of Jews who perished in the blazeis unknown. Most survivors fl ed to Nowy Dwór (Nowy Dwór gmina, Sokółkapowiat), Sokółka, or Suchowola. Between 300 and 600 Jews returned to Dabrowa inthe week following the fi re.1 They were subjected to further violence at thebeginning of July, when a group of Germans arrived and ordered 27 young Jewishadults to accompany them for forced labor, outside of Dabrowa. After thelaborers did not return home, they were presumed to have been murdered by theGermans.2 After the murders, the Germans likely ordered the remaining DabrowaJews confi ned to the borders of the town, in part to conscript them moreeasily for forced labor. Initially, a Polish guard supervised the brigades ofJewish forced labors. The Jews razed structures destroyed in the fi re. Likelyfrom September 1941, ultimate authority for the open ghetto was transferred toat least fi ve German Gendarmes permanently stationed in Dabrowa. The Jewslived in the basements of burned- out homes and sheds. They suffered fromstarvation, as there was little food available in the devastated town.3 In thefall or perhaps the winter of 1941, the Germans established a closed ghetto forthe Dabrowa Jews. The date the ghetto was created varies in the sources. Somescholars believe the Jews were confi ned to the theater and mikveh imme VOLUMEII: PART A DArchival documentation on the World War II history of the Jewishcommunity of Dabrowa Białostocka under German occupation can be found at IPN-Bi (e.g., 1/160 [former S-41/72]); and YVA (e.g., O-3/1560 and O-3/4181). LauraCrago

NOTES 1. Nevins, Dubrowa, p. 20, for low figure; and “Dabrowa,” in Spector and Freundlich, Pinkas ha- kehilot, 8:244– 246,for high fi gure. 2. Testimony of Sonia Lewkowicz, in Klarsfeld, Documents,1:447. 3. Nevins, Dubrowa, p. 20; and Lewkowicz, in Klarsfeld, Documents,1:447. 4. Compare “Dabrowa,” in Spector and Freundlich, Pinkas ha- kehilot,8:244– 246; and Nevins, Dubrowa, p. 20. 5. Lewkowicz, in Klarsfeld, Documents,1:447. 6. Nevins, Dubrowa, pp. 20– 21; and Lubling, Twice- Dead, pp. 12, 121–122, 151. 7. Nevins, Dubrowa, p. 21.

Źródło: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/oa_monograph/chapter/3209350