Wave of Deportation from Gabin, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 04/1942

According to Pinkas HaKehillot, on the eve of World War II some 2,312 Jews lived in Gąbin (Gabin, Gombin), a small rural town in Gostyń county (Waldrode). On September 7, 1939, Gąbin was occupied by the German army ; it was placed under German military administration during the days that followed. During this time, the synagogue was burned down and the rabbi, it appears, murdered.

In 1940, German police arrived from Gostyń and neighboring villages, forced all Jews from their homes, and murdered the elderly and the sick. Violence and murder continued throughout the year. The German mayor of Gąbin, named Rode, and a German named Schumacher were later recalled by Gąbin’s Jews as being especially brutal. In a letter sent after February 1941 from Krośniewice to the Warsaw ghetto, someone wrote: “They sent postcards full of deadly fear…resignation from…Gąbin.” In August, a ghetto was erected. During the year 1941, Jews were drafted for slave labor and male Jews were sent to forced labor camps around Poznań (Posen). The Jewish Council was made to prepare lists of men to be deported. In 1942, a total of 2,150 Jews were registered in the Gąbin ghetto, among them 250 Jews from neighboring places. ...