80 YEARS AGO
Before World War II Jews made up about 60% of the inhabitants of Otwock. On 19 August 1942 the Nazis moved 8-10,000 Otwock Jews (about half the residents of the town) to the extermination camp at Treblinka. They were probably murdered the next day in the gas chambers there.
At the same time Jews were being executed in situ. On 19 August and during the following weeks the Nazi occupiers shot dead around 2,000 people who had hidden from the death transport in the woods by Reymonta Street. A commemorative stone was erected there in August 1949.
REMEMBERANCE
Each 19 August since 2002, the Citizens’ Committee for Remembrance of the Jews of Otwock and Karczew and the Friends of Otwock Society have organised a March of Remembrance and Prayer on the anniversary of the annihilation of Otwock’s Jews. The local volunteers work on the principle that ‘no day changed the history of our town as much as this one.’
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
This year events to commemorate the annihilation of the Otwock, Falenica and Rembertów ghettos have been planned jointly. In Otwock the March of Remembrance and Prayer will take place on 19 August as usual.
On 21 August there will be a march from Rembertów to Falenica. It will follow the 15 km route taken by Rembertów Jews forced to walk to the Falenica ghetto, from where both inhabitants and incomers were transported to the extermination camp in Treblinka.
There will also be exhibitions, concerts, lectures and guided walks around the nonexistent town. Everybody is welcome.
For more information about the programme please see www.zydziotwoccy.pl
