HOLOCAUST TESTIMONIES


Niwka (near Sosnowiec, now part of Sosnowiec)

Deponent: Lejzor Herman
Born: 18 March 1906 in Modrzejow,
Parent: Majer and Nacha Fajgla (maiden name Gliksman)
Residence: Myslowice, ul. Prebenda 2

Niwka is a small town 400 meters distant from Modrzejow. In the area lived 12,000 persons. The workers among them labored in the surrounding steelworks, mines and brickyards. Among them lived 800 Jews working in crafts and small trade.

Their financial condition were quite good The working masses purchase their goods in Jewish shops. Jews from Niwka belonged to the Modrzejow Community, but they had their own synagogue, a nice library and took an active part in the political and cultural life of Zaglebie. People who died were burried at the Modrzejow cemetery.
The Germans occupied Niwka on Tuesday 5 September 1939. On that very day, they plundered Jewish shops and apartments. They destroyed synagogues and forced Jews to perform public work. In November, there appeared an order for Jewish citizens to wear a yellow badge.

Beginning in 1940, Jewish police appeared from time to time in Niwka. They made raids and roundups and sent groups of young people to labor camps in Germany. There came also from Modrzejow the infamous German sadist Mates with his dog and persecuted Jews in a sophisticated way. For example, on one Saturday he rushed into a Jewish house and on the pretext that Jews were organizing a secret meeting, he shot several persons while others were mercilessly bitten by his dog.
At the beginning of 1941, all Jews from Niwka were deported to neighboring Dandowka and all were subordinated to the Sosnowiec Judenrat. When liquidation of Jews began, the small towns fall victim first and all ended their lives in the gas chambers of Oswiecim (Auschwitz).

At present (1946) there is neither in Niwka nor Dandowka even a single Jewish person living.