A poster announcing the closing of the gates of the Jewish ghetto in Lvov. July 1942

A poster announcing the closing of the gates of the Jewish ghetto in Lvov. July 1942

A poster on behalf of the Nazi authorities in which the Aryans living near the Jewish homes are called to evacuate their homes prior to the final and hermetic closure of the Lviv ghetto for Jews only until mid-September 1942. signed (in print) on behalf of the German police chief in Lvov, the oppressor Albert Ulrich Ukrainian - Galician, July 16, 1942 .

The announcement that addressed to Ukrainians living in Galicia, states that they must contact the police for a new residence outside the Jewish compound : "By order of June 15, 1942, regarding the creation of a Jewish residential area in the city of Lvov, I instruct the Aryan population to empty the Jewish residential area ...". (The Galicians called "Aryans" because they have been patrons of the Austrian government for centuries, and were supposedly considered by the Germans to be "Aryans" for all intents and purposes). The poster lists the exact names of the streets where this population still lives and must be completely vacated: Ashkenazogo, Gusi, Obucheva, Lom Krichin, etc., as well as the exact deadlines for evacuation to each area separately between the third and sixth of August 1942. It is also written that The Aryan tenants must report to the police 14 days before the eviction date in order to obtain a new place of residence outside the specified streets, and that a resident who objects to leaving his home will be forcibly removed from it, and fined up to 1000 zlotys, and is subject to a sentence of three months imprisonment. Thus, the hermetic closure of the Lviv ghetto to Jews only came to a final conclusion.

The Lvov ghetto was actually established in November 1941 and was the third largest of the Jewish ghettos. There was a large Jewish neighborhood in the center of the ghetto, and immediately after its establishment, mass murders and deportations to death camps were carried out there. In the first months of its establishment, the Ukrainian population still lived within the ghetto area, right next to the homes of the Jews. Beginning in the summer of 1942, the Germans carried out a number of operations to completely empty the ghetto of its Ukrainian residents, and close its gates to Jews only, in order to facilitate their deportation to camps and their destruction (in those months the Ukrainians themselves took part in mass killings in the ghetto). In September 1942, the ghetto was surrounded by a wall that the Jews themselves were forced to build at their own expense. The work was completed in early September 1942. The area of the Jewish Quarter, which has now officially become a ghetto, was greatly reduced and every Jew caught from now on outside the wall was sentenced to death. Due to the reduction of its area, there was a severe overcrowding in the ghetto. Jews were forced to live in attics, basements, warehouses and tents. The deportation of non-Jews out of the ghetto took weeks, and this often led to quarrels and conflicts that led to the murder of the Jews by their neighbors. With the final departure of the non-Jewish population from the ghetto, the difficult phase of the 'final solution' in pogroms, Aktions, and the deportation of Jews to labor camps and death camps reached its peak.

Size: 42x30 cm. Slight tear on the left, stains. condition good - very good.