Będzin is a city in the Dąbrowa Basin, in southern Poland. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza River. Even though part of Silesian Voivodeship, Będzin belongs to historic Lesser Poland, and it is one of the oldest towns of this region. Będzin is regarded as the capital of industrial Dąbrowa Basin.
Image: Będzin Zamek obronny z XI Vw
Image: Będzien, Pałac Mieroszewskich
Image: Kościół Świętej Trójcy nocą
19th-century view of the Będzin Castle
The Będzin Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up by Nazi Germany for the Polish Jews in the town of Będzin in occupied south-western Poland. The formation of the 'Jewish Quarter' was pronounced by the German authorities in July 1940. Over 20,000 local Jews from Będzin, along with additional 10,000 Jews expelled from neighbouring communities, were forced to subsist there until the end of the ghetto history during the Holocaust. Most of the able-bodied poor were forced to work in German military factories before being transported aboard Holocaust trains to the nearby concentration camp at Auschwitz where they were exterminated. The last major deportation of the ghetto inmates by the German SS – men, women and children – between 1 and 3 August 1943 was marked by the ghetto uprising by members of the Jewish Combat Organization.
Będzin Ghetto in the Holocaust, Modrzejowska Street, 1942
1941 Będzin Ghetto Police ID.
Frumka Płotnicka who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at age 29, led the uprising in the Będzin Ghetto during Operation Reinhard