Brick from a Polish ghetto manufactured by the Heiss brick factory

Brick from the Lwów ghetto in L’viv Ukraine (formerly Lvov, Poland). The brick is from the area that the Lvov Judenrat building was located and is marked with the name of the Heiss brick factory, which was owned by a Jewish family. Before World War II, the Jewish population in Lvov was 110,000. In September 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded, occupied and partitioned Poland and Lvov came under Soviet control. During this time nearly 100,000 refugees fleeing German occupied areas of Poland streamed into the city. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Lvov was occupied by the Germans. Pogroms and executions by the Einstatzgruppe took place immediately, and thousands of Jews were murdered. The Nazis established a Judenrat, a council of elder Jewish leaders to act as liaisons between the community and Nazi officials and implement Nazi policies. They selected Dr. Joseph Parnes as chairman. At the end of October, Parnes was killed for refusing to hand over Jews to be sent to Janowska work camp. In November 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in the northern section of Lvov, required all Jews to move there, and killed the elderly and sick as they made their way to the ghetto. In March 1942, the Nazis began deportations to Belzec killing center and to Janowska forced labor camp. In June 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and the remaining Jewish residents were sent to Belzec or Janowska.