The Second World War

Gombin was occupied by the German army on September 7, 1939. On arrival, the Germans began to press Jews for forced labor, mainly to refill the defense trenches that had been dug in the area by the Polish army. Towards the end of September 1939 the Jews were ordered to concentrate in the New Market Square. There, they were abused by German policemen, and some were murdered on the spot. On the same day, German soldiers put the town's wooden synagogue on fire. The fire spread to the Beit Hamidrash and to neighboring houses. The Germans blamed the Jews for the fire, imposing on them a collective fine.

Forced Labour in Gombin, original photograph donated to Yad Vashem

The abuses increased from day to day. Early in October 1939, the Jews of Gombin were ordered to wear a yellow star on their clothes. All the males had to register and be available for three days of forced labor per week. Later that month, a Judenrat of six members was established, headed by Moshe Want. At the beginning of 1940 the Gombin Jews were evicted from their homes and concentrated in a separate section of the town.

At first, the ghetto was open and the Jews could go out to purchase food from Polish peasants. At that time, there were 2100 Jews in the ghetto, 250 of whom had been deported from surrounding townships. Men and women were forced to provide a variety of services and work for the German authorities and the German companies that were being established in the area. During the first half of 1941 the Jews began to be rounded up and sent to labor camps in Konin, Eindziov, and Hohenzaltz. About 200 Jews were deported to the labor camps, many of them eventually ending up in Auschwitz.

In the spring of 1942 the Germans liquidated the Gombin ghetto, dispatching the remaining Jews to the extermination camp at Chelmno. The Jews who resisted the Germans and their collaborators were shot on the spot. Only 212 Jews from Gombin survived. Of these, 180 escaped at the time of the German invasion and managed to cross the border into the area of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviet Union. Of the other 32, many spent the war in hiding on the "Aryan side," while a few survived the concentration camps. After the war, the majority of those who remained alive went to Israel.