How did occupation transform Łuków into a site of persecution and murder?

The memorial book describes the catastrophe beginning with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and refers to Łuków’s transformation during the occupation. It also records a Judenrat headed by Weintraub during the first period of German rule, marking the forced reorganization of communal life under persecution.

The records describe Jews confined in the Łuków ghetto and a November 9 action in which 200 Jewish people were brought to the magistrate’s court; many were shot there or at the cemetery. Another testimony states that approximately 1,500 Jews were killed in an action on March 20.

Survivor testimony recalls the last Aktion in the ghetto and a final Aktion from which the narrator’s mother and youngest brother escaped. The book also records deportations from the region to Treblinka and extermination camps, showing the movement from local persecution toward systematic murder.

Memorial entries and testimonies name families murdered by German perpetrators, killed while hiding, or murdered after being concealed by Polish helpers. These accounts restore individual and family identity to a history otherwise recorded through numbers and operations.