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The Izbica Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto created in Izbica in occupied Poland during World War II, serving as a transfer point for deportation of Jews from Poland, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps.
Jews in Izbica (eez-beetz-uh) established a kehilla in 1775. Under threat of imprisonment, Jews were forbidden to cross the bridge leading from Izbica to Tarnogora. This was due to demands by Christians who saw Jews as threats to their business ventures. There were 407 inhabitants in Izbica in 1827, all Jewish. In 1939, Izbica had about 6,000 inhabitants including 5,098 Jews.
In 1941 the Nazis created a ghetto in Izbica. It was surrounded by barbed wire fencing, and thus there was no way of escaping the ghetto. From March until June, 1942, around 17,000 Jews from abroad were deported to Izbica transit camp. Transports of Jews from Lodz, Czestochowa, Glowno, Konin and Kolo were sent to Izbica. After that, Jews from Czechloslovakia, Moravia, Germany, and Austria started arriving.
According to testimonies and literature, the first two deportations from Izbica (on 24 March 1942 and 8 April 1942) were sent to Belzec Death Camp. Most of these victims were Polish Jews. They were deported due to the S.S. requiring space for deportees from western countries. The transport of 14-15 May 1942, which consisted of German/Czech Jews, went to Sobibor Death Camp and Majdanek Death Camp.
It is estimated that around 4,000 victims were murdered at buried at the destroyed Jewish cemetery in Izbica. The Nazis took the last Jews from Izbica to Sobibor in April of 1943. The final liquidation of the ghetto took place on the 28th of April 1943, when the last two hundred Jews were sent to Sobibor.
Izbica had just 35 Shoah survivors out of its original 6,000 Jewish residents.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Engels was the commandant of the camp. In the camp, the Jews from Germany were differentiated from Polish Jews by the colour of the obligatory star of David signs (yellow for German vs blue for Polish Jews).
Many victims succumbed to typhus due to poor sanitary conditions in the ghetto. Already in the early phase of the ghetto, the Nazis destroyed the local Jewish cemetery and the tombstones were desecrated and used to build a prison.
Besides being sent to the extermination camps, approximately 4500 Jews were murdered by Nazis at the cemetery. The Jewish cemetery in Izbica is being reconstructed by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland.