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Prisoners in the Janowska concentration camp orchestra, which performed as workers were taken to and from forced labor.

Janowska

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites (including ghettos). The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes, including forced labor, detention of people deemed to be "enemies of the state," and mass murder. Millions of people suffered and died or were killed. Among these sites was the Janowska camp.
Janowska

Janowska was a forced-labor camp for Jews in German-occupied Poland. It also served as a transit camp during the mass deportations of Polish Jews to the killing centers in 1942.

  • Janowska environs
  • Janowska labor camp, fall 1942
  • Janowska camp commandant Gustav Willhaus

    SS Second Lieutenant Gustav Willhaus, camp commandant, rides past the main gate of the Janowska concentration camp. The road from the street and into the camp was paved with tombstones the Nazis removed from Jewish cemeteries. Janowska, Poland, between September 1942 and November 1943.

  • Officers with guard dog in Janowska

    Two SS officers and a guard dog in the Janowska concentration camp. Janowska, Poland, January 1942–November 1943.

  • Bone-crushing machine in Janowska

    Bone-crushing machine used by Sonderkommando 1005 to  grind the bones of victims after their bodies were burned in the Janowska camp. August 1944.

  • Shoes of victims in the Janowska camp

    Shoes of victims in the Janowska camp were found by Soviet forces after the liberation of Lvov. Janowska, Poland, August 1944.

  • Felix Horn describes antisemitism in Lvov and conditions in the Janowska camp

    Felix was born to an assimilated Jewish family in Lublin, Poland. His father was a locksmith and his mother was a singer. Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Felix fled east to Rovno and then to Soviet-occupied Lvov, where he was accepted at a medical school. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Felix was taken to a labor camp. He escaped and returned to Lublin, and found that his family had been forced into the ghetto established there. After the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto, Felix, his sister, and his future wife Lucine were sent to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto. Felix, Lucine, and her brother escaped and hid, eventually fleeing to the Warsaw ghetto, where Felix and Lucine were married. They escaped to the "Aryan" side of Warsaw and obtained false papers. Felix worked for the underground during the Warsaw Polish uprising in 1944. He and Lucine were liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945. They immigrated to the United States in October 1950.

In September 1941, the Germans set up a factory on Janowska Street in the northwestern suburbs of occupied Lvov, in southeastern Poland. This factory became part of a network of factories, the German Armament Works, owned and operated by the SS. Jews were used as forced laborers, mainly in carpentry and metalwork. In October 1941, the Germans established a camp housing the forced laborers next to the factory.

Felix Horn describes antisemitism in Lvov and conditions in the Janowska camp

Felix was born to an assimilated Jewish family in Lublin, Poland. His father was a locksmith and his mother was a singer. Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Felix fled east to Rovno and then to Soviet-occupied Lvov, where he was accepted at a medical school. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Felix was taken to a labor camp. He escaped and returned to Lublin, and found that his family had been forced into the ghetto established there. After the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto, Felix, his sister, and his future wife Lucine were sent to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto. Felix, Lucine, and her brother escaped and hid, eventually fleeing to the Warsaw ghetto, where Felix and Lucine were married. They escaped to the "Aryan" side of Warsaw and obtained false papers. Felix worked for the underground during the Warsaw Polish uprising in 1944. He and Lucine were liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945. They immigrated to the United States in October 1950.

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection

In addition to being a forced-labor camp for Jews, Janowska was a transit camp during the mass deportations of Polish Jews to the killing centers in 1942. Jews underwent a selection process in Janowska similar to that used at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek. Those classified as fit to work remained at Janowska for forced labor. The majority, rejected as unfit for work, were deported to Belzec and killed or were shot at the Piaski ravine, just north of the camp. In the summer and fall of 1942, thousands of Jews (mainly from the Lvov ghetto) were deported to Janowska and killed.

The evacuation of the Janowska camp began in November 1943. As the Germans attempted to destroy the traces of mass murder (Aktion 1005), they forced the prisoners to open the mass graves and burn the bodies. On November 19, 1943, these prisoners staged an uprising and a mass escape attempt. A few succeeded in escaping, but most were recaptured and killed. The SS staff and their local auxiliaries murdered at least 6,000 surviving Jews from various forced-labor camps in Galicia when the Janowska camp was liquidated in November 1943.

Shoes of victims in the Janowska camp were found by Soviet forces after the liberation of Lvov.
Shoes of victims in the Janowska camp

Shoes of victims in the Janowska camp were found by Soviet forces after the liberation of Lvov. Janowska, Poland, August 1944.

  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • Where were camps located?
  • To what degree was the local population aware of this camp, its purpose, and the conditions within? How would you begin to research this question?
  • How did the functions of the camp system expand after World War II began?
  • Did the outside world have any knowledge about the camps? If so, what, if any, actions were taken by other governments and their officials?

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