2 Killing site(s)
Zofia T., born in 1924: “Germans in black uniforms used to come to Goraj by car, sometimes by truck, to inspect the village and collect the quotas imposed on the farmers. One day, a German wearing a skullcap brutally beat a sick Jewish woman. She screamed, and when she fell, he kicked her. There was also a policeman from the "blue" police named Mrozik. He wasn’t from the area—people said he came from the West and that he was a Volksdeutscher. He hated Jews. It was a Sunday evening when Mrozik took three Jews from the marketplace. Among them was the Jewish leader of the community, who was over 50. They knew they were going to be killed as they were being marched to a field behind the church. Later, isolated gunshots could be heard. The bodies were left in the meadow. I don’t know if they were ever taken to the Jewish cemetery for burial.” [Testimony N°YIU815P, interviewed in Goraj, on June 13, 2018]
"1. Date and place of execution: September 30, 1942, at the Jewish cemetery of Goraj.
2. Type of execution (shooting, hanging or other): shooting.
3. Personal data on the executed victims (Poles, Jews, other nationalities): Jews
Number of executed victims: 31
Origin of the victims: local
Names, age, occupations and addresses: unknown […]
5. Who perpetrated the execution? The Gestapo and the German Schutzpolizei.
[…] 8. Where were the bodies buried? Exact place: Jewish cemetery.
9. Description of the pit/pits/dimensions, number of victims per pit: one pit, 2,5m depth, 3m length and 2 m width." [Court inquiries about executions and mass grave, IPN:GK 163/12 p.93]
Goraj is a town in Biłgoraj County, located in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 20 km (12 miles) north of Biłgoraj and 60 km (37 miles) south of the regional capital, Lublin.
The beginning of substantial Jewish settlement in Goraj dates back to around 1600, when restrictions on Jewish residency and economic activity were lifted. A synagogue and a cemetery were established at that time. In 1648, a Cossack invasion led to the massacre of some of Goraj’s Jewish residents. However, the community revived in the second half of the 17th century and soon regained its status as one of the larger and more prosperous Jewish communities in the region.
By 1789, there were 55 Jewish homes in Goraj. A new brick synagogue, constructed at the end of the 19th century, further contributed to the religious and communal development of the Goraj Kehilla (Jewish community). The Jewish population grew to 517 by 1865, representing 26.8% of the town’s total population. Jews in Goraj were primarily engaged in the lumber trade and also owned potteries and small textile workshops.
During the interwar period, the Jewish community maintained a synagogue, a mikvah (ritual bath), a cemetery, a Talmud Torah (religious school), and a Beit Yaakov school for girls. Political life was dominated by the Mizrachi Party, Agudath Israel, and various Zionist youth movements. A local witness recalled the presence of Jewish tailors, bakers, shopkeepers, and carpenters in pre-war Goraj, as well as Jewish children attending the local Polish public school. Boys also studied religious subjects at the home of a man named Pelc. Another community figure, Hejzyk, was known for announcing the Sabbath on Friday evenings by striking the shutters of Jewish homes with a hammer.
The economic crisis that gripped Poland during the interwar years had a particularly harsh impact on the Jewish population. This hardship was intensified by anti-Jewish boycotts and acts of violence. Between 1935 and 1937, several antisemitic incidents were recorded in the Biłgoraj district, including vandalism of Jewish-owned shops in Goraj.
According to the 1921 census, the Jewish population of Goraj was 394, accounting for nearly 17% of the town’s residents. By 1939, this number had grown to 498.
On September 22, 1939, German troops entered Goraj. After the occupation began, approximately 100 Jews fled eastward across the Bug River into Soviet-controlled territory.
There was no German gendarmerie stationed in Goraj itself, but gendarmes from Biłgoraj regularly patrolled the town. The enforcement of German orders was primarily carried out by the Polish “blue” police from nearby Frampol, along with some local policemen.
Although no formally enclosed ghetto was established in Goraj, the village effectively functioned as one. Some sources mention the official creation of a ghetto in 1940. A twelve-member Jewish Council (Judenrat) was formed, and local Jews were banned from engaging in trade, required to wear armbands with the Star of David, and subjected to a curfew.
In August 1940, all Jews in Goraj aged 13 and older were forced into labor, particularly in the draining of a local pond. By September 1940, the Jewish population had risen to around 860, following the arrival of roughly 400 refugees from nearby towns such as Frampol, Janów Lubelski, and Biłgoraj, as well as deportees from Łódź.
On April 6, 1941, approximately 800 additional Jewish refugees from Biłgoraj arrived in Goraj, many of whom were housed in a stable and in the synagogue. By July 1941, the Jewish population had swelled to around 1,350. However, due to overcrowding, poor sanitation, and the spread of disease, many refugees fled back to Biłgoraj in August 1941.
Persecution, beatings, and isolated killings of Jews and Poles intensified in 1941. These acts were carried out by Gestapo officers—who were stationed for a time in the local school—as well as by German police units and members of the Polish “blue” police. According to survivor testimonies, several shootings of Jews took place in Goraj. In one incident in 1941, about 100 Jews were killed at an unknown location. Another occurred on May 14, 1942, when 28 Jews were murdered.
According to a local witness, three Jewish men, including a member of the Jewish Council, were executed in a field behind the church by a member of the local “blue” police.
The main deportation of Goraj’s Jews occurred on August 21, 1942, when 850 people were sent to the Bełżec death camp. According to Polish archives, one month later, on September 30, 1942, the Gestapo and a unit of the German Schutzpolizei executed 31 Jews in the Jewish cemetery in Goraj.
A local witness reported two additional killings near the cemetery. The first took place in a clay quarry, where an unknown number of Jews were murdered. The second, which the witness observed directly, involved three German soldiers who executed about thirty Jewish men, women, and children. The victims were lined up along a pit in a field near the cemetery and shot with machine guns. This mass shooting reportedly occurred just days before the burning of the village in late September or early October 1942, when German forces set fire to the Jewish homes in Goraj and deported the remaining Jews to nearby Frampol.
When the Frampol Ghetto was liquidated on November 2, 1942, Jews from Goraj and Frampol were sent via Szczebrzeszyn to Zwierzyniec, and from there to the Bełżec death camp.
The two identified killing sites near the Jewish cemetery of Goraj, documented by Yahad, remain un-commemorated to this day.
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