Research trip to Poland N°3
(14- 25 August 2011)
Voievodeship of Lublin
District of Chełm and Krasnystaw
Members of the team:
Father Dominique Pellet- Team leader
Patrice Bensimon- Investigation supervisor
Oscar Blanco - Cameraman
Olga Szymerowska- Photographer
Krzysztof Zajkowski- Investigator, Driver
Jarosław Kijewski- Investigator
Stanisław Zyśko - Driver
Julie Philippe- Script
Michał Chojak- Interpreter
Anna Szymerowska- Interpreter
Towns and villages where the investigation has been conducted:
Dorohusk, Wółka Cycowska, Sawin, Siedliszcze, Trawniki, Piaski, Rybczewice, Fajsławice
For the third research trip to Poland, Yahad chose to continue the investigation in the district of Chełm and then in the district of Krasnystaw, both are situated in the region of Lublin.
Wółka Cycowska was the first village where we identified a few mass graves. According to the archives a ghetto existed there. In 1942 there were 538 Jews inside of it. Many shootings took place there, but during its liquidation in June 1942 the Nazis led the people to the Sobibór camp. In the village of Cyców which is situated just next to it 300 Jews were shot, still according to the archives.
Marian S. is a direct witness of two executions that took place in this area. He showed us three sites:
a) The first place is situated in Wółka Cycowska- 7 Jews were shot, among them 2 Jewish women. They were aligned next to the wall and shot, then sołtys- the mayor of the village, called the people from the local population (the father of our witness too) to bury the bodies. This place is not commemorated.
b) The second one was a field before, now a monument is there for 163 Polish citizens including 150 Jews, killed in June 26, 1942.
c) The third mass grave is situated in Cyców, there is a monument. This was a ravine where Jews, Poles and Gypsies were killed. The witness told us that each fencer had a gun. Some people inside of the mass grave were still alive, so a fencer got closer the mass grave and finished them off.
Aleksandra W. saw the Jews being led to the sites of executions and then she saw the mass graves. The soil was still moving. This mass grave on the market place in the village of Cyców has no monument.
In the village of Sawin a labor camp for the Jews existed. Many of them were killed on the Jewish cemetery in 1941-1943.
Kazimiera S. confirmed us the information. She told us that the Nazis gathered all the Jews of the village of Sawin in the same time and placed them in the camp. They were shooting them in the middle of the central place of the camp. Our team went to see the Jewish cemetery, it has a monument, but the place is abandoned.
According to the archives a ghetto was established in the village of Siedliszcze in June 1, 1940 and liquidated in October 1942. There were the Jews from Cracow, Lublin and Czechoslovakia. They were working for the Wasserwirtschaftsinspektion by making the improvements. The Polish archives are talking about 120 Jews, Gypsies and people from the local population who were killed there probably in 1943.
Yahad identified there 4 sites of executions with no monuments. The first one is situated in the former Jewish cemetery. Józef O. informed us that about 200 people were shot there. They were shot in a ditch next to the cemetery and then buried in the cemetery. He showed us also the second place on the former Jewish cemetery where 2 Russian POW’s were shot.
A forest was planted there to enclose the area of this cemetery.
Kazimierz D. indicated us a place next to a field where four Jewish women were killed during the march to the camp of Trawniki. Not far from this place, there is a place where a Jewish woman was killed and then a place where a Polish handicapped woman was shot by the partisans. All those places are not commemorated.
We decided then to go to the town of Trawniki where a labor camp existed for the Jews, before it was also designed for the Russian POW’s and political prisoners. The SS training camp of Trawniki was directly related to these camps.
We were told that at the beginning the Germans from the Wehrmacht arrived and had not done anything to the Jews, then they left and the members of SS arrived in 1942. Their commanding officer settled down in the Jewish house which was guarded by the Ukrainians. The local Jews were deported and then the Germans ordered to build a camp. It was constructed by the Jews on the area of the sugar refinery. This place was perfect for the camp also because of a siding which entered inside of it, so it facilitated the transports of the people by train.
Jews from France, Holland and Czechoslovakia were brought to this camp.
Thanks to Józef K. an exceptional direct witness of the shootings and to Jan. K, Yahad could identified three no commemorated sites of executions. In two of them thousands of Jews from the camp were killed and in the third mass grave about 3 Jews were shot by the Nazis.
Jewish population in the town of Piaski was bigger than Catholic population. There were about 5.000 Jews living in the town.
Yahad found a few exceptional direct witnesses in the town of Piaski. An anonymous witness was ordered to bury the dead bodies of Jews who had just been shot. The creation of the ghetto took place in 1941 and lasted about 3 weeks. At the beginning the Jews from Piaski were installed there, but then they were transferred to the camp of Trawniki and then to the Bełżec death camp. The Germans replaced them by the Jews from Lublin, Czechoslovakia and Germany. The Jewish police was created; they were transferred also to the camp of Trawniki at the moment of the liquidation of the ghetto.
The Jews from the ghetto were killed by groups on the Jewish cemetery. Mister Piotr indicated us the sites of executions. There are 4 sites of execution on this cemetery which is abandoned, there is a monument there.
The Jews from the town of Fajsławice were transferred to the town of Piaski and then to the camp of Trawniki. The Jews from Czechoslovakia were brought here and lived in a big barrack that the Germans ordered to construct. According to the archives it was in 1942 and there were 150 people. The living conditions were very difficult; they were dying because of cold and hunger. Their bodies were buried next to a pond. This place is not commemorated.
According to the archives about 100 people are buried there, 50 other people were transferred to the camp of Trawniki.
During this third research trip Yahad progressed in his work of discovering and in-depth understanding of the Holocaust by Bullets and of the history of the Lublin’s region. We interrogated 35 witnesses and we identified 18 sites of execution.