[2] The ghetto was liquidated during an uprising, a final act of defiance of its Underground Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) made up of youth.

Prior to deportations, the Jews from the two ghettos shared the "Farma" vegetable garden allocated to Zionist youth by the Judenrat.

[5] Over the next two years the Germans resettled thousands of Jews from smaller towns to Sosnowiec, temporarily increasing the size of the local Jewish community to 45,000.

In the first months of 1940 the Zentrale der Jüdischen Ältestenräte in Oberschlesien (Central Office of the Jewish Councils of Elders in Upper Silesia), headed by Merin, was created in Sosnowiec, representing about 45 communities.

Numerous forced labour facilities were established for the locals; making uniforms, underwear, corsets, bags, leather handbags, and military boots.

[13] Ever since the ghetto was established, numerous deportation actions were organized by the Germans with the help of the Judenrat and Merin, selecting healthy men for slave labor at the camps.

During the final major deportation push in August 1943, the Jewish Combat Organization (Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB) in Będzin and Sosnowiec staged an uprising against the Germans.

[citation needed] The Catholic convent of Carmelite Nuns led by Mother Teresa Kierocińska aided the Jews in the ghetto and hiding.

[23][24] Adela Zawadzka with her 3-year-old child and her sister Rozia Zawadzka escaped from the 1943 deportation and were rescued by Józefa Hankus and her sister Rozalia Porębska who got them false papers from the Polish underground; Rozia used her false Kennkarte to get her fiancé Elek Jakubowicz out of the camp, helped by Johan Brys, a railway man.

[25] Mosze Kokotek whose wife Brandla was killed by the Germans, escaped from the ghetto with his 9-year-old daughter Felicja and stayed with the Poles on the Aryan side until 1944.

[27] Six Jews were sheltered for two years from 1943 until the arrival of the Soviets in 1945 by Maria Sitko and her daughter Wanda Sitko-Gelbhart, including Fela Kac and her aunt Fryda, Heniek Mandelbaum, Jerzy Feder, as well as Felicja and Leon Weintraub.

During police searches, the Jews used to descend into two dugouts constructed by the men under the floors, so the Sitko women could pretend that they did not harbor fugitives, which carried the death penalty in those days.

Wanda Sitko stole an identity card while visiting the police station, and gave it to Jerzy Feder which allowed him to go outside with her to obtain the necessities of life on the Aryan side of the city.