2 Killing site(s)
Roman L., born 1928: "Initially, the Germans did not implement systematic persecution of Jews in Pilawa, though isolated acts of violence occurred. Pilawa served as the site of a reserve coal depot for the railway, where the Germans forced Jews to load coal onto train cars. Both Jews and Poles worked there, but Jewish men comprised the majority of the labor force. They were required to perform the grueling manual labor for entire days under constant German supervision. Any attempt to escape was punishable by execution. On one occasion, I witnessed a Volksdeutsch attempting to force a Jewish man to work on his field. When the man refused and tried to escape, the Volksdeutsch shot him. His lifeless body was left hanging on a fence as a grim warning to others." (Testimony N°YIU535P, interviewed in Pilawa, on October 02, 2015)
Pilawa is now a town in Garwolin County, within the Masovian Voivodeship. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the village was home to a diverse population comprising Poles, Germans, and Jews. According to the 1921 census, the Jewish community numbered 179 individuals, accounting for approximately 15% of the total population of 1,208. Most Jewish residents were involved in trade or worked as artisans, including tailors and shoemakers. A small wooden synagogue stood at the heart of Jewish religious life prior to the outbreak of war.
After heavy bombardments that claimed the lives of many civilians, Pilawa fell under German occupation in September 1939. Shortly afterward, a new administration was established. While no German gendarmes were stationed permanently in Pilawa, the Bahnschutzpolizei, responsible for railway security, occupied a local school.
Anti-Jewish measures were implemented swiftly, requiring Jews in Pilawa to wear distinctive patches bearing a blue Star of David. Jewish men, along with a few Poles, were forced to load coal into wagons at the railway depot under German supervision. Some Jews were also requisitioned by a local Volksdeutsch to dig drainage ditches on his property. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, a Jewish man who refused the work and attempted to flee was shot dead by the Volksdeutsch.
On October 20, 1940, Pilawa’s Jewish residents were deported to the Parysów ghetto. Local Poles were conscripted to transport Jewish families and their belongings using carts. Subsequently, some Jews from Pilawa were reported in nearby ghettos, including Łaskarzew and Sobienie Jeziory.
Pilawa station became a critical transit point during the Holocaust, facilitating deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp. On September 27, 1942, German forces and their collaborators surrounded the Parysów ghetto, forcing its Jewish residents to march to the Pilawa station. The column of Jews was escorted by Polish and Jewish policemen under the watch of Germans on horseback. The weakest individuals were transported on carts at the rear. At the Pilawa station, Latvian auxiliaries awaited the Jewish deportees. On the same day, Jews from Sobienie Jeziory were also brought to Pilawa, destined for Treblinka.
While waiting on the station ramp for two trains to arrive, at least 20 Jews were executed by Latvian guards. After the deportation trains departed, local Poles were forced to remove the victims’ corpses from the ramp and bury them in a nearby pit. Lime was layered between rows of bodies. The burial site remains visible today as an overgrown excavated area, although no memorial has been erected to commemorate the victims.
For those who evaded the initial deportations, targeted executions continued. Jews in hiding were gradually discovered, captured, and detained in the school building. Once a group had been rounded up, they were taken to a meadow near the railroad tracks, where they were executed by German gendarmes and buried on-site. While the total number of victims remains unknown, a local witness interviewed by Yahad described seeing two Jewish men murdered, their bodies buried on land that today lies within a private garden in Pilawa.
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