A group of Jewish men in Luboml.
Overview
- Caption
- A group of Jewish men in Luboml.
- Date
-
1939
- Locale
- Luboml, Poland
- Variant Locale
- Lyuboml
Libevne
Libovne
Liubomil - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Nathan Sobel
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Nathan Sobel
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Nathan Sobel (born Nuta Sojbel) is the son of Avrum Leibish Sojbel and Basia Faigen Sojbel. He was born on January 23, 1929 in Luboml, in eastern Poland where his father was a master mechanic and owned a machine shop together with his four brothers and nephews. Nuta had three siblings, Aaron Hirsz (b. 1925), Sura Tobe (b. 1929) and Ben-Zion (b. 1930). Following the start of World War II, in September 1939, Luboml first was occupied by the Germans. After a few days they left and in the ensuing power vacuum band of Ukrainians conducted a pogrom in the town. A few days later Soviet troops entered and the town was under Soviet control for the next year and a half. Then Germany seized control following its surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and immediately began instituting various antisemitic regulations. Jewish property was seized, and all Jews had to wear armbands, stars and also mark their homes with Jewish stars. The Germans established a ghetto in Luboml in October 1941. Since Avrum was a trained mechanic, he and his sons worked at their trade for the Germans. On October 1, 1942, German units began liquidating the ghetto taking out the Jews and shooting them into pits. Avrum had built two hiding places for the family, one in an attic and one underground. The Sojbels remained in their hiding places for eight days and then decided to run away. The family lived on the run in different villages in the vicinity of Luboml. In March 1943, Mr. Lachor, a former tenant of the family, found them, brought them food and agreed to hide them in his cowshed. Lachor also belonged to a Polish resistance group, and one day that August Ukrainian and German police raided the hiding place looking for Mr. Lachor. They found him, Avrum, and Sura and killed all three. Nuta, his mother and brothers managed to escape to the countryside. Nuta ran with his older brother Aaron and his mother fled with his younger brother Ben-Zion. People shot at them thinking they were partisans, but eventually they escaped. They found 11 other Jews from Luboml and together built a bunker where they lived from August 1943 to January 1944. On January 17, soldiers of the Polish AK discovered the hiding Jews and began shooting. Only Nuta escaped alive. For the next six months, he lived on his own and supported himself by performing odd jobs for a Ukrainian farmer before being liberated by the Soviet army on June 19, 1944. Following liberation, Nuta remained in Luboml for a month volunteering as a Soviet informer to take revenge on those who collaborated in his family's murder. Afterwards he made his way to Berlin and then came to a children's home in Paris under UNRRA auspices. In January 1946 he immigrated illegally to Palestine on board the Cairo, but in October 1952, he moved to the United States to reunite with an aunt.
- Record last modified:
- 2010-04-21 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1146450
