Film shot in the ghettos of Dąbrowa Górnicza and Będzin, probably at the beginning of the ghettos.
Dabrowa Górnicza is part of the Katowice conurbation. Jews settled in Dabrowa Gornicza in the middle of the 19th century. There were 4,304 Jews living in Dabrowa Gornicza according to the 1921 census (11% of the total population).
The German army captured Dabrowa Gornicza on 3 September 1939. In the fall of 1940 several hundred young Jewish men were deported to slave labor camps in Germany. Several hundred more were deported in the course of 1941. At the end of that year a ghetto was established. On 5 May 1942, the first deportation took place in which 630 Jews were taken to Auschwitz and exterminated. In the second deportation, conducted on 12 August 1942, another few hundred Jews were sent to their death in Auschwitz. On 26 June 1943, the ghetto in Dabrowa Gornicza was liquidated and all its inmates were transferred to the ghetto in Srodula (a suburb of Sosnowiec), the only ghetto still existing in Upper Silesia. It too was liquidated and all its inhabitants, including the Jews from Dabrowa Gornicza, deported to Auschwitz and killed.
According to the 1921 census, there were 17,298 Jews in Bedzin or 62.1 percent of its total population.[By 1938, the number of Jews had increased to about 22,500.
Situated close to the border, Bedzin was quickly captured by the Wehrmacht. On 7 September, persecution of the Jews began, with the instituting of economic sanctions. On 8 September, the Będzin synagogue was burned, and the first massacre of local Jews took place.
The ghetto was founded in May 1942 but deportations had started as early as October 1940. Despite cooperation with the occupiers as is shown in this film, several large deportations took place in 1942. The last major deportations took place in 1943: 5,000 were deported on 22 June 1943 and 8,000 around 13 August 1943. About 1,000 remaining Jews were deported in the subsequent months. A rising took place in August 1943 which was put down and the ghetto was eliminated.
This film is held in the Polish film archive in ul. Chelmska, Warsaw.
Dąbrowa Górnicza – miasto na prawach powiatu położone w województwie śląskim na Wyżynie Śląskiej, na wschodnim krańcu Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego. Zajmuje powierzchnię 188,73 km² stanowiąc tym samym największe miasto województwa oraz 9 pod względem wielkości miejsce kraju.
Dabrowa Górnicza jest największym ośrodkiem przemysłowym Zagłębia Dąbrowskiego. Na jej terenie mieści się największa huta stali ArcelorMittal Poland oddział Dąbrowa Górnicza, a także Koksownia Przyjaźń, Huta Bankowa czy huta szkła należąca do Saint-Gobain. Dąbrowa Górnicza należy do sosnowiecko-dąbrowską Katowickiej Specjalnej Strefy Ekonomicznej.
Poza doskonale rozwiniętym przemysłem miasto poszczycić sie może wieloma zabytkami, takimi jak: bazylika Najświętszej Maryi Panny Anielskiej z 1875 r., młyn z XVIII wieku w Ratanicach czy kaplica z XVIII wieku w Trzebisławicach.
Przez Dąbrowę Górniczą przwebiega droga ekspresowa S1, dwie drogi krajowe - DK nr 86 i 94 oraz linia kolejowa nr 1 (Warszawa – Częstochowa – Katowice).