Grzegorz Berendt

Over 113 thousand Jews lived in Polesie province in eastern Poland before 1939. Before the outbreak of World War II, they all had to struggle with the difficulties typical for the free market, but they were treated as equal with other Polish citizens. The process of accelerated expropriation of the local community began when Polesie fell under the Soviet Union occupation. Already in the first weeks of their rule, the new regime took the assets and funds of Jewish social and political institutions. Only temporarily the Jews were allowed to use their houses of prayer, although the government introduced special taxes for using them. By January 1940 companies and residential properties of the area greater than indicated by the regulations were nationalized without any compensation. The rules for exchanging Polish currency into rubles and a new tax system allowed invaders to rob a fundamental part of people’s savings in the so‑called Western Belarus. Professionals (lawyers, doctors) were forced to shut down their private businesses. Families, accused of acting against the Soviet Union, were deprived of all their personal property and fell victim to mass repression. As a consequence, the Jewish community and the rest of the local population became very poor in the first two years of the war. However, unlike in the areas incarnated into the German Reich or the General Government, most Jews in Polesie managed to keep their personal items and household equipment. The entry of German troops to Polesie in June 1941, started a several months long period, during which the new occupants led to the total destruction of the Jews. Latest local concentration of Jewish population has been wiped out in late January and early February 1943. (Pruzhany ghetto). Before they carried out the extermination, from the very first days of invasion German occupiers plundered and exploited the Jews in a systematic way. Military and civilian authorities imposed additional contributions, requesting delivery of cash, gold, silver, and later different categories of objects. Gradually, the entire Jewish population was concentrated in about 30 ghettos, which were located in the poorest parts of cities and villages. The cost of maintaining the ghettos rested on the shoulders of Jewish prisoners. They were forced to work for wages, which did not let them meet basic necessities of life. Such looting continued until the last moment before extermination, when the victims were deprived of clothing, shoes and valuables (e.g. wedding rings). The Germans confiscated money and valuable movable goods. Other components of Jewish property were auctioned or distributed among the local population in the conditions laid down by the Germans. From 1939 to 1943 the Jews of Polesie were first robbed by the Soviet government, then by the Germans.

The Hampels. Love in the shadow of Nazism

Abstract: Dorothea Schalit, a Jewish girl, and Heinz Hampel, a Protestant, met in Sopot (Zoppot), then a town incorporated into the Free City of Gdańsk (Danzig), in the 1920s. They got married and were active in the leftist and democratic circles. After 1933, when the municipal authorities became dominated by the Nazis, the Hampels did not leave the Free City. Despite the increasing pressures and insults from the NSDAP members, Heinz Hampel refused to divorce Dorothea. Owing to their courage and the aid from few friends, the couple managed to survive in Sopot and in March 1945 saw the Red Army enter the town. They lived there until 1950 when they decided to emigrate to Israel. Till their death they stayed in Jerusalem. The presented text consists of a historical introduction written by Grzegorz Berendt and the report of the Hampels on their life in Sopot prior to the entry of the Russian army into the city. The said report was incorporated into the collections of Yad Vashem Institute, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.