A labor, concentration, and transit camp to meet the needs of German armaments industry was established in Lwów in fall 1941 on Janowska (now Taras Shevchenko) Street. The total number of the inmates who were in the camp has been estimated as 100,000. The prisoners were subjected to brutal violence. According to the testimonies of camp survivors, frequently changing camp commanders and German camp personal murdered Jewish prisoners in this camp, in groups, as entertainment. According to historical research the total number of those killed in the Janowska camp amounted to approximately 35,000-40,000.

Related Resources

Written Testimonies

ChGK Soviet Reports

From the testimony of Jakob Birkenfeld, who was born in 1910

The victims were taken to the large square in front of the Janowska camp and a selection took place there.... We were ordered to bring horses to the Janowska camp. There I saw scenes that chilled the blood in my veins. In the square where the women's camp, surrounded by electrified wires, was located there were more than 1,000 women and children in a kneeling position, faces toward the ground and hands at the back of their heads. In a white shirt, Ziller stood ankle-deep in blood, holding a machine-gun. He went through the rows of the victims and shot them. After shooting one, he kicked the victim away and went on to the next one. Members of the Jewish order service stood nearby; they removed the murdered ones to make room for new victims....

ZIH, WARSAW 301/3735 copy YVA M.49 / 3735

Janowska

Camp

Poland

49.839;24.029