1 Killing site(s)
Kazimiera D., born in 1924: "At the cemetery, a very large grave had been dug. About twenty young boys, aged 12 to 16, arrived on a cart. They were in tears as they got off. The boys were led to the edge of the pit, where they faced it, and were executed by machine-gun fire to the back. Their bodies fell directly into the pit. Shortly after, another cart arrived carrying more bodies, which were added to the same grave.” [Testimony N°YIU287P, interviewed in Ostrów Lubelski, on October 28, 2013]
"Questionnaire on Mass Killings and Mass Graves
1. Date and place of killing: 1942, Ostrów Lubelski, Jewish cemetery
2. Method of killing/shooting, hanging or other: Shooting.
3. Details of victims killed:
- Poles, Jews, foreigners: Jews
- Number of people executed: 50
- Origin of victims: local Jews
- Names, ages, professions and addresses: unknown
4. Do we know what the victims were accused of, or was the killing an order of reprisal or other? Non-respect of existing restrictions
5. Who carried out the execution: Gendarmerie and Police
6. Are the names of the perpetrators known? Unknown
7. Were the bodies burned? Or destroyed in some other way? Where were they buried? No, the bodies were buried
8. Where were the bodies buried? In the Jewish cemetery in Ostrów Lubelski
9. Description of the grave: damaged grave, it is difficult to identify its exact location.
10. Was the grave exhumed? No.
[IPN GK 163/16, Questionnaire on Mass Executions and Mass Graves in the Lubelskie Province, Districts: Puławy. Based on the testimony of Stanislaw Daze, 41 years old, resident of Ostrów Lubelski, collected on September 28, 1945].
Ostrów Lubelski is a town situated on the banks of the Tyśmienica River, 25 km (15 miles) east of Lubartów and 41 km (25 miles) northeast of Lublin. The first records of the Jewish community in Ostrów date back to the 16th century, when three Jewish farmers from nearby Parczew settled in the town. By the early 17th century, the first synagogue and a Jewish cemetery had been established in Ostrów.In 1676, the Jewish population of Ostrów numbered 60, but their numbers dwindled to just 4 by 1718 due to the devastation inflicted on the region during the Great Northern War (1700–1721). The community gradually recovered in the 19th century, and by 1856, 851 Jews lived in Ostrów, making up 33% of the town’s population. By the end of the century, in 1897, the Jewish population had grown to 3,221, representing 53% of the total population. Many Jewish residents worked as craftsmen, such as shoemakers and tailors, though most were involved in small-scale trade.
During the interwar period, the Jewish community owned several facilities, including a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery, a mikveh, a home for the elderly, and a house of prayer. The local Jewish population was predominantly Orthodox and active in the Agudah movement. However, the Zionist and Bund parties also had a presence, particularly among the town’s youth.
According to the 1921 census, Ostrów Lubelski was home to 1,267 Jews. By July 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, the local Jewish population had grown to 1,994.
On September 22, 1939, Ostrów Lubelski was occupied by the Soviet Army. However, the Soviets quickly retreated, leaving the town to the Germans at the end of the month. Dozens of the town’s Jews fled to the Soviet Union alongside the retreating Red Army.
For the Jews who remained, the Germans ordered the formation of a Jewish Council (Judenrat). In November 1939, the town saw the arrival of 850 Jews resettled from Lubartów, followed by another 1,000 expellees from Poznań in December 1939. Following these arrivals, a ghetto was established in mid-December 1939. The new arrivals were confined to 295 houses in the pre-war Jewish neighborhood in the southwestern part of Ostrów, near the Market Square. A decree from the German administration prohibited Jews from leaving Ostrów.
To support the poorest residents, the Jewish Council and the Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) branch created a welfare system by May 1941. This included three nutrition centers and a communal kitchen that fed approximately 1,842 sick, young, and unemployed individuals. Despite these efforts, living and sanitary conditions were dire, especially for about 200 of Lublin’s neediest Jewish expellees. These individuals were housed by the JSS in two overcrowded halls, with a separate room for 50 sick and elderly deportees. By August 1941, 3,249 Jews were confined within the 572 rooms of the Ostrów ghetto. Conditions deteriorated further with the outbreak of a typhus epidemic in October 1942, which claimed the lives of about 100 people.
On October 7, 1942, a group of German gendarmes, assisted by Ukrainian SS auxiliaries, ordered the Jews to gather in the marketplace. According to a witness interviewed by Yahad, the Jewish inhabitants of Ostrów began heading toward the Lubartów road as soon as the town’s siren sounded. Meanwhile, a ghetto liquidation unit went from house to house, murdering the sick and infirm on the spot, as well as those who attempted to hide. Polish archives indicate that around 50 people were killed during the Aktion for refusing to follow the assembly orders.
A local witness reported that approximately 20 boys, aged 12 to 16, were discovered in a hiding place during the ghetto liquidation Aktion. These boys were taken to the Jewish cemetery and shot by the Germans. The rest of Ostrów’s Jewish population—about 3,200 people—were forced to march to the Lubartów train station. According to the Yahad witness, guards shot those who could not keep pace during the march, and the victims’ bodies were later buried in the Jewish cemetery.
On October 11, 1942, the remaining Jews of Ostrów, along with those from Lubartów, Kamionka, and Tarlów, were deported to the Sobibor and Majdanek death camps.
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