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1 Killing site(s)
Janusz M., born in 1929: "The Jews from Czechoslovakia arrived in the evening. They were unloaded from the train and crowded into a barn near the station. The next day, they were sent toward Wąwolnica and likely to the Poniatowa camp. Those who could walk did so, while the others were placed on carts. I saw the column of Jews pass by, guarded, I believe, by Ukrainians. A young man was shot and killed when he tried to jump over a ditch. He fell where he stood. Later, as the column moved on, we heard gunfire. I saw a dead woman lying in the road. My friend told me she had just given birth—the baby was killed instantly, and she was shot in her head and chest afterwards.” [Testimony N°YIU903P, interviewed in Nałęczów, on August 18, 2018]
"Questionnaire on camps
1. Camp name - Jewish labor camp.
2. Where was the camp located? On the area of the Nałęczów railway station.
3. Camp dimensions- Approximately 15x7 meters.
4. Date of camp creation- 1942
5. Date of camp liquidation- November 1943.
6. Were there only Poles, Jews from Poland, or Poles and Jews from Poland in the camp? Only Jews from abroad and from Poland.
7. Were there any foreigners in the camp, which ones / were there Jews from abroad / how many? From Czechoslovakia and Austria.
8. What was the average population density in the camp? Around 40 people.
9. How many people passed through the camp during its existence? About 200 people.
10. What happened to the prisoners after the camp was abolished? They were all shot.
11. Did the prisoners work in the camp, what work did they do, what were the workshops? They didn’t work in the camp, there were no workshops.
12. Did the prisoners work outside the camp, what work did they do, where? They unloaded wagons at the Nałęczów station.
13. How were the prisoners fed? Not enough.
14. Was there an infirmary or hospital in the camp? No.
15. Were there any epidemics in the camp? No information.
16. Are there any data on mortality in the camp? None.
17. Were there any executions in the camp, outside the camp, of what kind? During the liquidation of the camp, outside the camp by shooting in the back of the head.
18. Were corpses destroyed, how, where? No.
19. Was there a crematorium in the camp? No.
20. Has it been determined where the bodies of the dead and murdered were buried? On the fields of Kozwider and Kolodziej, near the railway station.
21. What is the current state of the camp, what has been destroyed, what is there on the site where the camp used to be? The camp no longer exists.
22. Are there any material evidence/documents, personal belongings of the murdered, etc./been preserved, which, where, has it been kept safe? There is no evidence.
23. Are the names and addresses of those imprisoned in the camp known? The names of two Jews from Warsaw - Czechowski and Bliskind - and probably the name of a lawyer - a Jewish woman from Warsaw called “Roma”, other victims unknown.
24. Are the names of the Germans, the camp director and other officials known? Oberschaarforer S., his deputy S.S., both from Upper Silesia.
[GK 163/49. pp. 108 – 108 rev., Questionnaire on Camps in the Lubelskie Province, Districts: Puławy. Based on the testimony of Wladyslaw Zielonka, 39 years old, collected on December 5, 1945].
Nałęczów is a town in Puławy County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is located approximately 27 km (16 miles) southeast of Puławy and 27 km (14 miles) west of the regional capital, Lublin.
Jewish settlement in Nałęczów began in the 19th century, coinciding with the town’s development as a spa and health resort. Most Jews in the town made their living through trade and tourist services, catering to the many Jewish visitors to the spa. Several Jewish doctors also lived in Nałęczów, providing medical care to vacationers. From at least the 1890s, Jews owned or rented several villas, including the Osloda villa, built by the Tenenbaum family. Initially a hotel until around 1915, it was later converted into the Parisian boarding house, run by the Kohn family.
According to the 1921 census, Nałęczów had 270 Jewish residents, who were part of the Jewish community of nearby Wąwolnica. While the town had no synagogue or Jewish cemetery, it did have a beth midrash (house of study). On the eve of the Second World War, approximately 300 Jews lived in Nałęczów.
The Germans occupied Nałęczów in mid-September 1939, establishing their headquarters in the town and seizing numerous villas, as well as the hospital and school buildings. A Polish Granatowa (Blue) Police force was also set up.
In December 1939, 146 Jews from Puławy, Kurów, and Markuszów were deported to Nałęczów. However, no ghetto was established, as the German administration sought to maintain the town’s status as a health resort. To this end, before the start of the 1940 tourist season, the Jewish residents were expelled. In May 1940, they were deported either to surrounding labor camps or to the ghetto in Opole Lubelskie.
From the spring of 1942, the Nałęczów railway station became a key transit point in the southern part of the Puławy district, known as the transit camp of Strzelce. Thousands of Jews from Poland and other countries passed through this camp before being deported to the Bełżec or Sobibór death camps. At the same time, several hundred deportees deemed fit for work were sent to labor camps in the area, including the one in Poniatowa. Many Jews were killed during the deportation Aktions.
According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, several Jews, including a young man and two women, were killed while being escorted toward Wąwolnica after spending the night in the transit camp’s barracks. One Jewish woman was buried in an individual grave in a meadow near a villa in the town center, while the burial site of the other victims remains unknown.
From spring 1942 until November 1943, part of the Nałęczów railway station was converted into a labor camp. On average, 40 Jews from Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia were imprisoned in its barracks and forced to reload goods passing through the station. In total, approximately 200 people passed through the camp. According to Polish archives, during the camp’s liquidation in November 1943, all prisoners were executed in a square near the railway station. Other sources mention the killing of 35 Jews—34 men and one woman—by the Germans in 1943 or 1944 in a field near Nałęczów.
Beyond Jewish victims, Poles were also murdered in Nałęczów during the German occupation. In October 1942, 13 men—including 12 Poles and one young Slovak Jew named Peter—were executed in retaliation for the killing of two Germans by partisans. All the victims were buried in Nałęczów’s Catholic cemetery. While the names of the Polish victims are inscribed on the gravestone, the Jewish man is listed only as "unknown."
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