1 Killing site(s)
Andrzej J., born in 1930: "At the sawmill, Jewish prisoners were forced to build ammunition boxes under the watch of German guards dressed in black uniforms adorned with skull-and-crossbones insignia. These guards routinely beat them with truncheons. The labor camp operated throughout the German occupation, and when it was finally liquidated, the prisoners were ordered to dig a long, rectangular pit, approximately 15 meters in length, in one corner of the camp. Realizing the purpose of the pit, the prisoners attempted to escape, breaking through the wall of their barracks and fleeing into nearby fields. The Germans pursued them in an open lorry mounted with a machine gun. All the escaping prisoners were killed. Polish workers at the sawmill were then forced to gather the bodies and bury them in the pit. This massacre took place in the autumn, coinciding with the broader liquidation of Jewish communities across the General Government. Today, the burial site remains unmarked and uncommemorated." [Testimony N°YIU851P, interviewed in Puławy, on 28 June 2018].
Puławy, a town in eastern Poland located about 48 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Lublin, saw large-scale Jewish settlement beginning in the latter half of the 17th century. While the nearby town of Włostowice initially served as the primary Jewish center in the region, Puławy’s rapid development in the early 18th century soon shifted the focus to this growing settlement.
The town experienced significant urban and demographic growth in the 1870s and 1880s, largely due to the expansion of railway lines connecting Mława, Warsaw, Lublin, and Kowel. This brought an influx of Jewish settlers from Russia, who played a central role in Puławy’s commercial, cultural, and political spheres, as well as in the spread of Zionist ideas among the local intelligentsia and youth. Around 1906, Puławy’s first Zionist party was founded, although the socialist Bund also had strong local support.
According to a late 19th-century census, Puławy had 5,306 residents, with Jews comprising 73.2% of the population (3,883 individuals). However, in the years leading up to World War I, a growing Christian population decreased the Jewish proportion to 61.6%.
World War I devastated Puławy, destroying two-thirds of its buildings, including nearly the entire Jewish quarter, and leaving the town almost half-depopulated. However, the Austrian occupation in the summer of 1915 brought relief for the Jewish community, as new authorities granted equal rights to Jews, including voting rights in local elections. Between 1916 and 1918, six Jewish representatives held seats on the city council, and a weekly Yiddish newspaper began publication in 1917.
By 1921, the Jewish population in Puławy had fallen to 3,221, representing nearly 45% of the town’s residents. The community maintained a synagogue, bathhouse, and prayer house, supporting numerous religious, educational, and charitable organizations that assisted the poor, operated a loan fund, and funded healthcare, burial, and educational initiatives. Witnesses interviewed by Yahad – In Unum recall that in the interwar period, Jews dominated Puławy’s trade, operating a wide range of shops and services, including food, clothing, and leather stores, as well as carpentry and tailoring businesses. Some of Puławy’s most respected doctors were also Jewish.
By 1939, Puławy’s Jewish population numbered around 3,600, constituting 30% of the town’s total residents.
Following the German bombardment of Puławy on September 6, 1939, much of the town was destroyed, including the synagogue, Beth Midrash, and Jewish cemetery. When Wehrmacht units occupied Puławy in mid-September, Jewish residents were immediately subjected to violence, humiliation, and property confiscations by individual German soldiers. Systematic persecution intensified after October 1939, when German forces definitively took control following a brief occupation by the Red Army.
In early November 1939, a ghetto was established in the Piaski district, marking it as the second ghetto created in occupied Poland, after Piotrków Trybunalski. Jewish residents were forced into overcrowded, substandard housing, and Jewish businesses were seized. The German authorities established a Judenrat (Jewish Council) led by Henryk Adler, a former school principal and city council member. A witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum noted that from the start of the occupation, Jews faced severe restrictions, including bans on free movement, compulsory wearing of white armbands with a blue Star of David, and enforced labor, particularly in the reconstruction of a bridge destroyed by German bombing.
The annihilation of Puławy’s Jewish community began as early as December 1939. On the morning of December 28, the Jewish district was encircled by police forces, and approximately 2,500 Jews were marched toward Opole Lubelskie. Many died during this forced march, especially children and the elderly. Those unable to keep pace were confined to the unheated synagogue, where most froze to death. In October 1942, most Puławy Jews deported to Opole Lubelskie were transported to the Sobibor death camp. Smaller groups of Jews were also deported to nearby towns, including Nałęczów, Chodel, Bełżyce, Ryki, and Końskowola in December 1939.
Following these expulsions, only about 350 Jewish prisoners were permitted to remain in Puławy, confined to a camp in the town’s sawmill, surrounded by a wooden palisade and barbed wire. A Yahad - In Unum witness described the appalling conditions, with prisoners living in three self-built barracks, enduring severe hunger and frequent beatings by guards wielding truncheons.
Between May 17-20, 1942, approximately 2,000 Slovak Jews from Bardejov were deported to Puławy, where they joined around 500-1,000 Jews sent to the Majdanek camp in October 1942. Many others likely perished in the Sobibor death camp.
In July 1943, SS officer Otto H. took over the Puławy sawmill work camp, overseeing the mass murder of its Jewish prisoners in November 1943. According to a Yahad eyewitness account, during the camp’s liquidation, Jewish prisoners were forced to dig a long, rectangular pit about 15 meters in length. Realizing their fate, they attempted to escape by breaking through a barracks wall and fleeing into nearby fields. German forces pursued them in an open truck equipped with a machine gun, killing all escapees. Polish laborers at the sawmill were ordered to collect the bodies and bury them in the pit, while some bodies were burned in a barrack set alight by the gendarmes. Polish archives record around 200 victims of the massacre, though other sources suggest as many as 400. The exact number of Puławy survivors remains unknown.
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