Abstract

In October 1941 about 512 Jews from Luxembourg and Trier were deported to the ghetto in Litzmannstadt. They were part of a total of 20.000 Jews brought there from the ‘German Reich’, joining the horrible living conditions of some hundred thousand Polish Jews. This article aims to show the fate of these Western­European Jews in the ghetto by examining an exemplary group of 120 persons among those deported from Trier. After short descriptions of the ghetto’s role during the extermination of the European Jews and the persecution of Jews in the ‘German Reich’ and Trier before autumn 1941, the focus is on the integration of the Jews from western Europe in the existing ghetto society as well as on their living and working conditions. After this how and when the Jews from Trier died in the ghetto and the extermination camp at Chelmno will be described. This article is a short version of my master thesis from Trier University. It features several new findings about the fate of the Jews from Trier. Moreover it is meant to be an exemplary study about the Jews from western Europe in the ghetto in Litzmannstadt and their coexistence with Polish Jews.