Labor and Extermination: The Labor Camp at the Dęblin-Irena Airfield Puławy County, Lublin Province, Poland – 1942–1944

Abstract

This article describes in detail the labor camp at the Dęblin-Irena airfield located in the Puławy County, part of the western region of Lublin province in Eastern Poland, from 1942 to 1944. This labor camp, which was actually a family camp that operated until the end of the German occupation in July 1944, stands out among all the labor camps located in this district, which were dismantled by November 1943. The singular history of this camp among the labor camps in the region, and perhaps in occupied Poland as a whole, presents an interesting test case of the general phenomenon of forced labor imposed on the Jews, and of the reciprocal relations that could evolve between the Jews and their persecutors. This article examines the options and limits of response on the part of the Jews, the factors that impacted them, and the manner in which these relations and the changing conditions affected the Jews’ prospects of survival. In seeking to answer these questions, I first provide a brief historical introduction that demonstrates the link between Jewish forced labor and the extermination of Jews in Puławy County and in the town of Dęblin-Irena in particular. Proceeding from these contexts, I focus on the inner lives of the residents of the Dęblin-Irena airfield camp, tracing their everyday lives, the internal structure of the camp, its social fabric and internal hierarchy, the living conditions that pertained therein and its educational and religious activity, among others. These spheres are examined through testimonies, memoirs, remembrance books, diaries and letters in an endeavor to understand how hundreds of Jews in this camp survived, whereas a mere handful survived the other labor camps in the district.