Ryki | Lublin

Destruction of Jews in Ryki

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:

Jewish cemetery

Memorials:

No

Period of occupation:

1939-1944

Number of victims:

Over 200

Witnesses interviewed:

2

Witness interview

Adela N., born in 1926: “Dr. Kestenbaum was the leader of the Jewish community. He collected gold from all the Jews and gave it to the Germans as ransom in an attempt to delay the deportation. However, in May 1942, the Germans returned to the town and ordered the Jews to gather in the market square. They were not allowed to take anything with them. The Germans went from house to house, searching for anyone in hiding. If they found Jews, they killed them on the spot. From the market square, the Jews were taken to the train station in Dęblin. Among them was a Jewish woman with her 10-year-old son, who was unable to walk and was killed by the Germans. The sołtys, the town’s head, requisitioned people with carts, including my father, who had to follow the column of Jews to the train station in Dęblin. The bodies of the people killed along the way were placed on these carts and later buried in the Jewish cemeteries in Ryki and Bobrowniki. When they arrived at the station, the Jews were forced into freight cars, whose floors were covered with lime. The train then departed for Sobibor.” [Testimony N°YIU900P, interviewed in Ryki, on August 17, 2018]

Historical note

Ryki is a town located 64 km (40 miles) northwest of Lublin in eastern Poland. The first record of a Jewish community in the town dates back to the early 16th century, and the Jewish presence steadily grew over the following centuries, despite various restrictions on Jewish settlement and economic activity that lasted until the late 19th century.

By 1764, seventeen Jewish families lived in Ryki, supporting themselves through crafts and trade. In 1789, a Jewish store operated in the market square, and local merchants engaged in the grain trade, as well as leasing forests, orchards, and ponds. Throughout the 19th century, the Jewish population grew rapidly, reaching 476 individuals (38% of the total population) by 1834. Jews primarily resided around the market square and were involved in small-scale trade and artisanal activities such as tailoring, shoemaking, baking, and butchery. Small Jewish industries also developed, including a leather factory and embroidery shops, alongside larger commercial enterprises run by wealthy merchants. Many Jews operated inns and butcher’s shops.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community in Ryki became more organized, establishing a synagogue and a cemetery. Under the leadership of the town’s Hassidic rabbi, the community founded an interest-free loan fund, a charitable organization to aid the sick, and a night shelter for poor travelers. Before the First World War, Ryki also became a local center of Zionism.

In 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, the Russian authorities expelled the Jews of Ryki, accusing them of spying for the Germans. Despite the hardships of the war years, the Jewish community in Ryki rebuilt itself. According to the first census in 1921, there were 2,419 Jews in the town, making up 68% of the total population. During the interwar period, social and political life was vibrant, with active representation from major Jewish political groups, including Zionist and Bund organizations.

By 1939, nearly 3,000 Jews lived in Ryki, accounting for 66% of the town’s population.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

From September 10 to 12, 1939, Ryki was bombed by the German Air Force. These air raids resulted in the deaths of 500 civilians, including dozens of Jews. On September 17, 1939, the Wehrmacht occupied Ryki, leading to the closure of Jewish-owned businesses and the loss of livelihood for many Jewish families. By the end of September 1939, 400 young Jews from Ryki were selected and sent to work at the Dęblin military warehouses, only to be brought back a few days later.

In addition to the German gendarmes stationed in Dęblin, local repressive authority was enforced by units of the Sonderdienst (composed of ethnic Germans and some Ukrainians) and the Polish Granatowa police. In this context, Jews were forced to clean up the town, remove rubble, and clear snow from the streets.

In January 1940, a Jewish Council and a Jewish Police force were established in Ryki. At the beginning of 1941, the Germans created a ghetto centered around the market square and surrounding streets. This small area, heavily damaged during the 1939 bombing, housed approximately 3,500 Jews, including refugees and displaced persons from Puławy, Kurów, Garwolin, Warsaw, territories annexed by the Third Reich, and Slovakia.

In the winter of 1941, a typhus epidemic broke out in the ghetto, claiming about 50 lives. Later that year, an outbreak of trachoma further devastated the community. As a result, the ghetto was enclosed with barbed wire as a quarantine measure. According to a local witness who had been appointed as a volunteer fireman to guard the ghetto, several Jews attempting to escape into the nearby forest were shot. The Gestapo from Puławy also frequently visited the ghetto, terrorizing the Jewish population and demanding valuables. A local witness recalled seeing three German soldiers take three young boys from the ghetto and shoot them near a palisade. The mother of one of the boys, who had been searching for her son, was also shot. Their bodies were likely buried in the Jewish cemetery.

By the spring of 1941, to meet labor quotas, approximately 370 Jews were forced to work for the local administration, on nearby agricultural estates, or for private German companies in the area. Another 200 to 300 individuals worked in a labor camp run by the Schalinger company, while 100 to 200 Jews were sent to the Wehrmacht’s armaments camp in Stawy, and an additional 100 men were sent to an SS camp in Janiszów.

On May 7, 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by Dęblin gendarmes, the Sonderdienst, and Polish Granatowa police. The Jews were rounded up at the market square, where they were brutalized and robbed of their belongings. They were then forced into rows of three and marched 13 km to the Dęblin railway station. Anyone unable to keep up was shot. In total, around 150 people—80 men, 50 women, and 20 children—were killed during the march. The bodies were loaded onto carts designated for transporting the dead and later buried in the Jewish cemeteries in Ryki and Bobrowniki.

When they arrived in Dęblin, about 200 people, mostly young men, were selected to work at the Luftwaffe camp at Dęblin airport, while approximately 1,500 to 2,466 people were deported by train to the Sobibor death camp. Another 80 Jews were sent to the Majdanek camp. On May 8, 1942, Jews who had been working at the Stawy camp during the ghetto’s liquidation were also sent to Sobibor.

In September 1942, during the liquidation of the Żelechów ghetto—where some Jews from Ryki had sought refuge—a few managed to escape to the labor camps in Dęblin. When the Dęblin ghetto was liquidated in October 1942, several Jews from Ryki were among those deported to the Treblinka death camp. Historical records indicate that 14 Jews who escaped from a transport to Treblinka were later captured and shot in Ryki. Additionally, in 1943, 11 Jews from Ryki, including two women and three children, were killed in nearby Zalesie, where they had been hiding after escaping the Ryki ghetto.

Between 50 and 70 Jews from Ryki survived the war.

 

Jewishgen

Nearby villages

• Bobrowniki
• Stężyca

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