1 Killing site(s)
Waclawa K., born in 1930: "During the German occupation, the Jews from Niewirków and the surrounding villages were rounded up and kept in a wooden barn next to the distillery. There were about thirty of them. Near the site, in a field, there was a large cooking pot in which the Jews prepared food. At the end of the summer, the Germans shot the Jews with automatic weapons in the village forest. The shooting took place in the morning, before noon. The Jews had to dig the pit themselves. On the day of the shooting, the Germans came to fetch the Jewish children from school. There were three Jewish girls who continued to attend school with me. Germans in gray uniforms entered the classroom and took the Jewish girls to the pit. The benches where they had been sitting remained empty, and we were forced to continue with our Polish lessons.” [Testimony N°YIU422P, interviewed in Niewirków on March 23, 2015
"This is to inform you about the investigation concerning the execution of 50 people of Jewish nationality, committed in Niewirków, Zamosc powiat, on the orders of the SS between December 1942 and January 1943. The evidence gathered to date shows that the Germans successively carried out many executions on the Jewish population in the village of Niewirków between December 1942 and January 1943. In the run-up to the executions, the Germans mistreated the Jews, forcing them to work outdoors, digging pits and building roads. At the same time, they beat them, starved them and stole their belongings and gold. Then they liquidated them by shooting them. The executions were collective and individual. [General proceedings of the Lublin Investigation Commission on Nazi Crimes in Poland, dated February 4, 1970, concerning the execution of the Jewish population by the German occupiers between December 1942 and January 1943 in the village of Niewirków, OKL, DS 42/70/Zm]
Niewirków is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Miączyn, within Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 5 km (3 miles) south of Miączyn, 19 km (12 miles) east of Zamość, and 90 km (56 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Lublin.
In 1880, there were 78 houses and 730 residents, including 400 Catholics and 13 Jews. The 1921 census recorded 94 houses and 616 residents, including 44 Jews and 572 Christians (Poles and Ukrainians).
The village was centered around the Niewirków manor and estate, which belonged to the Płachecki family until the outbreak of the war. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, there were about 4-6 Jewish families living in the village before the war. The Jewish residents lived in a common house, divided into small flats, and were involved in small trade and crafts. All the village children attended the same school.
The synagogues and Jewish cemeteries were located in Zamość, a town 19 km east, and in Grabowiec, located 17 km north of Niewirków.
After the outbreak of the war, Niewirków was first occupied by the Soviet army, but in late September, the Soviets withdrew, leaving the village under German control as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
According to a Yahad witness, upon the arrival of the German occupiers, a German gendarmerie post was established at the Niewirków manor house.
Initially, the local Jews were allowed to remain in their homes until the spring of 1942. At that point, they were forcibly relocated to the fields of the local manor, which was managed by a German administrator. Jewish men and women from Niewirków and nearby villages were confined in a barn near the local distillery, where they were forced to work under strict supervision. They were not permitted to leave the area, and any attempts to escape were brutally punished. One witness recalled the case of a Jewish man who attempted to flee the barn and was captured in the town center, where he was shot by the Germans.
In November 1942, between 30 and 50 Jews who had been detained in the barn were taken to the edge of the forest, approximately 1.5 km from the site of their confinement. There, they were forced to dig their own graves before being shot by the Germans. Although Polish archives date the shooting between December 1942 and January 1943, Yahad’s investigations suggest that it most likely occurred in November 1942. A small plaque now commemorates the site where the Jews from Niewirków and the surrounding area were executed and buried.
After the massacre of the Jewish residents, the village was evacuated by the Nazis in December 1942. The remaining non-Jewish inhabitants were deported to a camp in Zamość, and their homes were subsequently handed over to German colonists from Romania and Bulgaria.
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