Other testimonies
regarding Halbow

On July 7^th, 1942, the Germans ordered all the Jews to assemble at the sport place. Personally ordered to appear was Hersh Eisenberg, head of the Judenrat, and the entire family of Hersh Raab. The entire Gestapo contingent was present and headed by Muller and Genz. They started throwing beer bottles at Eisenberg until they killed him. Then they selected about 1,300 Jews and the Raab family and loaded them onto trucks that drove them to Halbow, 18 kilometers before Bardiow and 10 kilometers after Zmigrod. There in the forest of Halbow, a huge pit about 50 meters long was dug several days earlier by local workers. The pit was surrounded with people armed with machine guns that fired rounds at the lined up people. Each Jew received one bullet, and no more. The killed Jews fell into the pit. The Germans ordered the local men to cover the area which kept moving for the next three days.

The testimony was corroborated by my cousin, Pinkas Wohlmut, a merchant of Zmigrod who witnessed personally the killing of Eisenberg and the destruction of the Jews of the town. The public notary of the town also attested to this destruction as well as the carpenter Worawski and the farmer Winarski, a resident of Zmigrod.

To reach the above town, one has to travel to Jaslo and then by coach to Zmigrod and Halbow. The place is situated in a forest. The pit is devoid of fences and the animals graze there. Zmigrod itself is devoid of Jews.

Signed: Einhorn Moses mp.
Krakow, date, 17.1.1946.

The translation from Polish to English was done by William Leibner

July 7^th was the anniversary of the 1,060 Jews that were killed in Zmigrod, 18 kilometers from Jaslo, in 1942. 800 were older than 14 years and many were Jews from Lodz who were forced to leave their city in 1939. This township had about 1,500 Jews including the Jews of Lodz, Krakow and the surrounding areas.

It was a very hot summer day, the entire Jewish population marched five abreast to a special designated area. At 7 A.M., the executioners appeared. An order was barked: Attention! Everybody up! Then the first call, all those aged 60 over there to the right! The second call, the head of the J.S.S. and his family out! Now the entire Jewish population lined up in alphabetical order. An SS man with a big stick walked amongst the Jews and pulled people out of their row. He pushed them to the right and hit them with his stick. Groups were led into the forest of Halbow, 12 kilometers from Zmigrod. At 3 P.M., the head of the Judenrat, Hersh Eisenberg was called. He was brutally hit in the face and blood oozed all over his body. The district chief told him that he would be on the last truck and insisted that his blood stream in the sun. This lasted until 5 p.m. At 7 p.m. we saw the clothing that was returned. We were later told that children were buried alive. Then they asked the survivors for a contribution of 100,000 zlotys and gave three days to collect the amount. The payment was made in two installments. Four days later, 150 men were sent to Plaszow near Krakow. Six weeks later Zmigrod was Judenrein [free of Jews]. Some survived amongst those that were sent to Plaszow, the rest perished.

Thus was erased an old Jewish township of 800 years. The Jewish community should try to bury these saints in a proper Jewish burial place and not let them stay somewhere in a forest.

Signed: Matriharz Lodz, Pilsudskiego 74.

Translated from Yiddish to English by William Leibner

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