On March 31st 1941, the Nazis established a ghetto in Kielce. It was surrounded by a wooden fence with barbed wire and consisted of two parts - the so-called big ghetto, located between Orla, Piotrkowska, Nowowarszawska, Pocieszki and Radomska streets, and the small ghetto area located between St. Wojciech square, Bodzentyńska and Radomska streets. About 1,500 buildings, inhabited before the war by about 15,000 people, were located in ghetto. In the period from March 1941 to August 1942, approximately 27,000 people lived there.

Initially, the Judenrat was lead by Mosze (Moses) Pelc who, however, refused to cooperate with the SS and was murdered. His place was taken by Herman Lewi (Hermann Levy), who died in Auschwitz, probably in November 1942

In the Kielce ghetto an attempt to organise resistance was made, but in the abscence of outside help the rebels failed to organise any military action. The ghetto was closed on April 5 1941 in the eve of the Passover. In the following months, despite overcrowding, the entire Jewish population from the Kielce area, about 1,000 Jews from Vienna, and also Jews from Poznań and Łódź were transported to the ghetto. Because of hunger, severe living conditions, and also due to widespread epidemics of typhus, about 4,000 people died in the ghetto.

Liquidation of the ghetto began on August 20th, 1942.  On the first day, after a selection done on Okrzei street, every old, sick or disabled person was shot on the spot and about 6,000-7,000 people – mainly women and children--were deported to the concentration camp in Treblinka. On August 22nd, another 500 people were killed. On the following day, the SS ordered a Jewish doctor to kill every patient in the ghetto hospital. Over the course of 4 days, about 1,200 people were murdered and 20,000 – 21,000 Jews were transported to the  the Treblinka concentration camp

Only 2,000 of people, including qualified Jewish workers, were left in the ghetto on August 24th 1942. These people were held in a camp at Stolarska and Jasna streets, which was operational until spring of 1943. They had to sort out stolen Jewish prpoerty and to clean the ground where the ghetto was. At that time there had been an attempt to create a resistance movement under the leadership of Dawid Brawiner (Bachwiener) and Gerszon Lewkowicz, who started to produce arms and ammunition for the planned uprising. The organisation was, however, soon found out by the commanding officer of the Jewish police, who denounced them to the gestapo. In May 1943, some of the Jewish prisoners from Kielce were deported to the labour camps in Starachowce, Skarżysko-Kamienna, Pionki, and Bliżno. A group of 45 Jewish children aged 15 month to 15 years were killed at the local Jewish cemetery--children that came from families of doctors, members of the Judenrat and Jewish police, who had survived ghetto and camp at Jasna and Stolarska street.