Editing Rzeszów (section)

====The Holocaust====
[[File:Rzeszów, Synagoga Staromiejska w Rzeszowie DZolopa 2019-08-17 152252 1333.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Old Town Synagogue]]

Before the outbreak of World War II, the Jews of Rzeszów numbered 14,000, more than one-third of the total population.<ref name="Virtual">{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_17208.html|title=Rzeszow|work=jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=5 February 2010}}</ref> The town was occupied by the German Army on 10 September 1939 and was renamed "Reichshof".<ref name="Virtual" /> German [[Persecution of Jews|persecution of the Jews]] began almost immediately. By the end of 1939, there were 10 [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] camps in the Rzeszów region and many Jews became [[Slavery|slave labour]]ers. Jews were forced to live in the [[Gestapo]]-controlled [[Nazi ghettos|ghetto]].<ref name="Virtual" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/rzeszow%20ghetto.html|title=Rzeszow Ghetto|access-date=28 April 2017}}</ref>

Many Jews managed to flee to [[Kresy|Soviet-occupied eastern Poland]]. By June 1940, the number of Jews in Rzeszów had decreased to 11,800, of whom 7,800 were pre-war residents of the city; the rest were from the surrounding villages. As in all [[List of Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]], life in the ghetto was impossible and hundreds died of malnutrition and disease. During the war, some 20,000 Jews were murdered in the ghetto in Rzeszów. This number includes thousands who were sent to Rzeszów only to be deported or murdered soon after arrival.<ref name="JVL"/><ref name="auto2">{{cite web|url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/rzeszow.html|title=Rzeszow www.HolocaustResearchProject.org|access-date=28 April 2017}}</ref>

In the summer of 1942, hundreds were murdered in forests near Rzeszów. Hundreds more were sent to [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]] to be immediately gassed. Later in 1942, another round up sent nearly 1,500 children to their deaths and their parents to labor camps. In final "[[Aktion]]s" in the fall of 1943, most Jewish slave labour was transported in [[Holocaust trains]] to the newly reopened [[Szebnie concentration camp]]. A month later, on 5 November 1943, some 2,800 Jews were deported to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and murdered.<ref name="JVL">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_17208.html|title=Rzeszow. Holocaust Period|author=Stefan Krakowski|year=2013|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=8 July 2013|quote=In September 1943 the able-bodied Jews of Rzeszów were transported to Szebnia, where the majority met their death.}}</ref><ref name="auto2"/> Most of those who had been sent to labor camps were eventually murdered there or in an extermination camp.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dobroszycki |first1=Lucjan |title=Survivors of the Holocaust in Poland |date=1994 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |location=Armonk, NY |isbn=1-56324-463-2 |pages=73, 80}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Megargee |first1=Geoffrey |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos |date=2012 |publisher=University of Indiana Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=978-0-253-35599-7 |page=Volume I 567–569I}}</ref>

Of Rzeszów's 14,000 Jews, only 100 survived the war, whether in Rzeszów itself, hiding all over Poland, or in various camps. The secret [[Żegota|Polish Council to Aid Jews, "Żegota"]], established by the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]], operated in the region.<ref>{{cite book|last=Datner|first=Szymon|year=1968|title=Las sprawiedliwych|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Książka i Wiedza|page=71}}</ref> Cases are also known of local Poles who were captured and either executed or sent to concentration camps for [[Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|rescuing and aiding Jews]].<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Rejestr faktów represji na obywatelach polskich za pomoc ludności żydowskiej w okresie II wojny światowej|year=2014|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=IPN|pages=241, 360}}</ref> Poles who saved Jews in other places in the region were also temporarily imprisoned in the local castle or sentenced to death by the local German court.<ref>''Rejestr faktów represji na obywatelach polskich za pomoc ludności żydowskiej w okresie II wojny światowej'', pp. 66, 78, 98, 106, 384</ref> After the war, an additional 600 Rzeszów Jews returned from the [[Soviet Union]]. Almost all of them subsequently left Rzeszów and Poland.