Marcinkonys Ghetto

Marcinkonys or Marcinkance Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established in Marcinkonys, Lithuania, during the Holocaust. The ghetto was set up at the end of 1941 and covered the area of 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres), surrounded by barbed wire. Several hundred people lived in the improvised ghetto. On November 2, 1942, orders were given to liquidate the ghetto and transport the Jews to Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps. A squad of 15 Germans ordered the Jews to gather at the entrance at 8am to be "transported for labor." Witnesses present different accounts of further events. According to an official complaint written by forester Hans Lehmann, two of the Germans opened fire at the crowded Jews without a reasonable cause. Other authors present the events as a revolt inspired by Aaron Kobrowski, chairman of the Judenrat. Panicked Jews attempted to escape through the fence into the nearby forest or back into the ghetto. The Germans then searched the ghetto, shooting any Jews on sight and destroying five secret bunkers. In total, 105 or 132 Jews were shot. About a hundred Jews escaped and 45 of them survived the war. Hans Lehmann, who had joined the Nazi Party in 1933, was investigated and it was determined that he was sympathetic to the Jews and allowed them to escape. He was discredited and transferred. In 1943, Jewish partisans derailed a German train east of Białystok. Lehmann was among the captured Germans. He recognized by one of the escapees from Marcinkonys and executed for his role in the massacre.