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Background

In January of 1940, the Nazis decided to make Pomerania "Judenfrei" (free of Jews) by deporting Pomeranian Jews to towns in the Lublin and Nisko area in Poland. Pomerania was deemed "Old Reich" territory and the plan was to resettle ethnic Germans there. A "Generalgouvernment" district was set up in occupied southern Poland to receive these deported Jews onto a "Judenreservat"… a "Jewish reservation". The plan was known variously as "The Lublin Plan", "The Nisko Plan" and "The Lublin-Nisko Plan" and the new residents were expected to provide a source of forced labor.

The Jews of Stettin (spelled "Szczecin" in Polish) became the first group of Pomeranian Jews expelled into the Lublin area. Those deported included intermarried families and families which had converted to Christianity from Judaism. Most Stettin Jews were long time German families who were highly assimilated into German society.

During the night of February 12, 1940 and into the early hours of February 13th, approximately 1,300 Stettin Jews were woken by the Nazis, allowed one suitcase, one watch and a wedding ring, and transported by train to the Lublin area. This event was heavily reported in the international press and by Alexander Kirk, the US Charge d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Berlin. From the train station, the Stettin Jews, including children, the ill and the elderly (including elderly who were removed from two nursing homes), were forced to march between 26 and 30 kilometers to Lublin in weather below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, in snow 22 inches deep. At least 70 people died along this march. Eyewitnesses reported that the deaths were primarily due to freezing after becoming exhausted. This deportation was different from later ones in that Jews with non-Jewish spouses and even some full "Aryans" were included.

Jewish survivors from Lublin report that they remember that the Germans "dumped" the Stettin Jews in the center of the Lublin Stare Miasto (Old Town). The Stettin Jews had no prepared accommodations, so the Jewish Lubliners took in Stettin families into their already cramped apartments. The Stettin Jews were soon relocated to three small towns near Lublin; Piaski (Piaski Luterskie), Glusk and Belzyce.

Once the Stettin Jews were settled in the three Lublin area towns, a registration was prepared by each local Judenrat which lists the surviving Stettin Jews at that time with vital information about them. Living conditions were extremely poor and many died in the towns where they had been sent. Others were later sent on to death camps.

A page from the list can be viewed here.

Database

At least three individual lists (one from each town) were combined into one detailed alphabetical list which is the source for this database. The surviving Judenrat files include smaller lists that apparently served as a source for the bigger combined list. The Stettin combined list was apparently assembled sometime after March 1940, and includes the current residence of each individual. The comments column includes amendments to the status of individuals dated as late as December 27, 1942. There are a total of 1,129 individuals reported on the list. It is generally reported in the historical accounts that about 230 Stettin Jews died during the relocation process.

The fields for this database are as follows:

• Number
• Surname
• Given Name - See Note 1 below
• Maiden Name
• Place of Birth
• Date of Birth
• Occupation - See Note 2 below
• Familial Description - See Note 3 below
• Former Address
• Current Address
• Father's Surname
• Father's Given Name
• Mother's Surname
• Mother's Given Name
• Religion - See Note 4 below
• Race - See Note 5 below
• Comments - See Note 6 below

Notes to above fields:

Note 1: (Given Names) In many cases you will see "Israel" after a male name or "Sara" after a female name. These are not necessarily actual middle names but the way that the Germans indicated Jewish individuals

Note 2:(Occupations) For assistance in translating the occupations in this database, please see the JewishGen InfoFile: http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/GermanOccs.htm

Note 3:(Familial Description) Below are the relationships found in the database:

Note 4: (Religion) Below are the religions found in the database:

Note 5: (Race) Below are the races found in the database:

Note 6:(Comments) Below are some of the more common German terns used in the Comments column of the database:

Acknowledgments

The list of Stettin residents who were deported to Lublin can be found in the Lublin Judenrat files which are housed at the Lublin branch of the Polish State Archives (AP). The file is labeled "sygnatura 166"; appears on microfilm # 118906 of the Lublin AP; and is accompanied by several smaller lists which may be components of the larger, combined list. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has a copy of all this material in Washington, D.C. (RG 15.101M reel 24). Kurt Friedlaender, a JewishGen volunteer, performed the data entry portion for this project.

Special thanks to Peter Landé, Robinn Magid, Stanley Diamond, and Jewish Records Indexing - Poland for organizing the acquisition of this material for typing. Thanks are due to Esther Mandalay for initially identifying this list, and to Robert Kuwalek and Tadeusz Przystojecki for their help interpreting the lists. In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible. Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy. Particular thanks to Nolan Altman, Vice President of Data Acquisition and Coordinator of JewishGen's Holocaust Database files.

Nolan Altman
June 2009

Searching the Database

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Last Update: 02 August 2009 by MFK