1 Killing site(s)
Walerian B., born in 1929: "We walked to Wacek’s house and went inside. Everyone was sitting on the floor behind the stove, frightened by something. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the Germans were taking the Jews out to the meadow and shooting them. We stayed hidden because a Jewish man had escaped toward Mr. Petrusznik’s barn, and the Germans were shooting at him. We were afraid and stayed behind the stove, as the shots were coming in our direction. We could also hear other shots coming from the river and knew the Jews in the meadow were being executed. Later, I went with a friend to the crossroads near the mill. There, we saw a huge pile of straw and several Jews standing nearby, stripped down to their underwear. We didn’t stay long—I went to school and didn’t see when this group was shot. But I know that, in total, 103 Jews were killed that day. Today, I wonder how I could go to school while such a massacre was happening in the village.” [Testimony N°YIU255P, interviewed in Dubica, on October 19, 2013]
"In the autumn of 1942, gendarmes from the Wisznice post liquidated the ghetto and transported the Jews by truck to Dubica Górna, where they were executed in Józef Petruczynik’s meadow. In one of the groups, a man managed to escape. As a result, in the following groups, the men were brought in their underwear, and to prevent further escapes, they were forced to lower their underpants to their knees. In this manner, 103–104 people were shot in groups. The gendarmes were assisted by SS men from Biała Podlaska.” [IPN – OKL, Ds 40/69, report of the persecutor in charge, copied: vol. 8, p. 97; Based on the testimony of Jozef Romanowicz, collected on March 15,1969].
Dubica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wisznice, within Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is located approximately 5 km (3 miles) west of Wisznice, 26 km (16 miles) south of Biała Podlaska, and 74 km (46 miles) northeast of the regional capital, Lublin.
Little is known about the presence of a Jewish community in Dubica. However, a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum confirmed that a Jewish family lived in the village and owned the forge. Additionally, a significant Jewish community thrived in the nearby village of Wisznice.
After the Wehrmacht definitively occupied the district of Wisznice in October 1939, the persecution of local Jews—most of whom lived in Wisznice—began immediately. In November 1939, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established in the town, and by June 1940, the first ghetto was created. A second ghetto followed in March 1941, housing over 1,000 people, including local Jews and resettlers from Kraków and Mława.
In September 1942, during the liquidation of the ghetto, most Jews from Wisznice were forced to march over 50 km to Międzyrzec Podlaski. A witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum recalled seeing the column of Jews, including entire families, pass through Dubica. Some were on foot, while carts carried the elderly. After a brief detention in the Międzyrzec ghetto, the Jews were deported to the Treblinka death camp.
At the time of the ghetto’s liquidation, approximately 120 Jewish craftsmen were allowed to remain in Wisznice in a residual ghetto to provide services to the German authorities. In November 1942, this remaining ghetto was liquidated by gendarmes and a small SS detachment. According to Polish archival sources, Jewish men were brutalized while being loaded onto trucks bound for Dubica. Witnesses interviewed by Yahad reported that 104 Jewish men arrived in Dubica, where they were taken in groups of 10 to 20 to a meadow near the Zielawa River. There, they were executed, mostly by gunshots to the back. One man managed to escape.
Requisitioned Poles were ordered to collect the bodies and transport them on carts to pits in a nearby meadow, where they were buried. After the war, the victims’ remains were exhumed. To date, no monument has been erected to commemorate the killing site.
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