The Czestochowa Ghetto in Memory

The Polish people of the 21st century have mixed opinions about remembering the crimes that took place within their country. While historians do not believe that the Poles played any administrative roles in the Holocaust, a substantial number of Poles contributed–in some form or another–to the killing of Jews. They reported hidden Jews, delivered materials to the Nazis, drove trains to the killing centers, and even occasionally killed Jews or worked as soldiers for the Nazis. There were also Poles who committed subtle but meaningful acts of resistance against Nazi terror. According to an article from The Times of Israel, “historians still debate how many Poles aided the Nazi death machine during World War II, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands” (Times of Israel). In March of 2018, the Polish government passed a law against publicly invoking Polish complicity in Nazi atrocities. According to the Washington Post, Israel likened the provision to “Holocaust denial,” and the United States called it an attack on “academic inquiry” (Washington Post). Historians agree that some Poles revolted against Nazi rule, and many were victims of Nazi atrocities, but for the Polish government to claim that Poland was a nation of victims and victims only runs counter to the historical project of acknowledging and learning from the Holocaust.

While the extent of Poland’s involvement in the Holocaust is a subject of debate today, there are still countless memorials to the Jews of Czestochowa. Czestochowa has its own Jewish Museum, which goes into detail about what life was like in the ghetto, as well as a memorial to the 40,000 Jews who were sent to Treblinka, and another memorial for the Jews who died at HASAG, a munitions factory where many of the Czestochowa ghetto survivors–including Bender, Gerson and Zylberberg–were subsequently sent. The memorial to the Jews who died at Treblinka, as seen here, is exactly where Captain Degenhardt’s selections occurred, where thousands of Jews were loaded into cattle cars to be sent to Treblinka and other killing centers. In learning about the ghetto, and then comparing that knowledge to the Polish government’s stance on what happened, it is clear that many Poles still struggle to admit any complicity between Poles and Nazis, even if it was their ancestors who committed such crimes. Very few of the perpetrators are still living, but it is crucial that victims, bystanders, and students of history acknowledge the sadistic offenses that occurred in Poland, as that is the only way to learn from them and prevent similar genocides from happening again.