1 Killing site(s)
Józef C., born in 1926: "The sołtys [village head] ordered me to go to Sławatycze to transport Jews from there to the Wisznice ghetto. When I arrived, I saw many Jews and their belongings being loaded. There were gendarmes present, some of them on horseback. I was instructed to go to a Jewish house and load belongings and geese onto my cart. I carried the possessions of a Jewish family, along with an elderly Jewish woman, on my cart. The Jews walked at the front of the column, while all the carts followed behind. As the column set off, those who could no longer walk were killed along the way. I saw three Jews being shot.” [Testimony N°YIU257P, interviewed in Rozwadówka, on October 20, 2013]
"In 1941 and 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews, forcing them to walk to Wisznice. During the deportation, some Jews were killed. The operation was carried out by the gendarmerie and the Ukrainian police. As far as I know, all the Jews who were killed were buried in a mass grave in the kirkut [Jewish cemetery]. For about two weeks, this pit was left uncovered, with additional bodies being added to it. Around 1943, the deportations..." [IPN – OKL, Ds 362/67, copied: pp. 6 - 6 rev.; 22 – 22 rev.; 26 – 26 rev.; 28 – 33; Protocol of interrogation of a witness Adam Goral, 70 years old, resident of Sławatycze, collected on November 14, 1967].
Sławatycze is a village in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, situated near the border with Belarus on the Bug River. It lies approximately 44 km (27 miles) southeast of Biała Podlaska and 88 km (55 miles) northeast of the regional capital, Lublin.
A Jewish community seems to have been established in Sławatycze as early as the late 16th century, following the town’s grant of city rights around 1577, which encouraged Jewish settlement. The Jewish community experienced a period of prosperity and was described in 1623 as well-organized and integral to the town’s economic life. However, this prosperity was interrupted in 1648 by the Cossack invasion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, which resulted in a pogrom that claimed several Jewish lives. Despite this, the community quickly recovered and resumed its important role in trade. By 1656, 21 of the 30 market stalls in the town square were owned by Jews.
By the late 18th century, Jewish-owned businesses flourished in Sławatycze, including an oil mill, a tannery, and brassware workshops. In 1897, the Jewish population numbered 1,707, accounting for 61.5% of the total population. Their primary sources of income included the grain and wool trade and various artisanal activities. Jewish entrepreneurs also owned glass and weaving factories. During the 19th century, Hasidism became highly influential among the town’s Jewish residents, eventually dominating the community’s institutions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Jewish political life began to take shape in Sławatycze. A Bund cell was established in 1904, reflecting the broader political diversification of the Jewish population. However, The First World War brought a significant decline in the Jewish population, as Russian forces expelled the Jews and burned their homes at the start of the war. After the war, some Jewish residents returned to Sławatycze to rebuild their homes and community institutions.
During the interwar period, the Jewish community maintained a synagogue, a mikveh, a matzah bakery, and a cemetery. Zionist parties and organizations grew in influence, shaping local Jewish political life. However, economic hardship and rising antisemitism during the 1930s led many Jews to seek work in larger cities or to emigrate to countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, or Palestine.
On the eve of the German occupation, approximately 1,600 Jews still lived in Sławatycze.
Sławatycze was first occupied by German troops on September 22, 1939. However, they were forced to retreat before the advancing Red Army on September 25, 1939, only to retake the town two weeks later, from October 5 to 9, 1939. Many Jews managed to escape across the Bug River into Soviet-occupied territory during the Soviet retreat. During the German occupation, a new administration was established in the village, including a German gendarmerie and a Border Police post, as well as a Polish Granatowa (Blue) Police unit and a Sonderdienst unit made up of local Ukrainians.
In November 1939, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was created. Anti-Jewish measures were implemented shortly afterward, mandating Jews to wear armbands bearing a blue Star of David. In the summer of 1941, most of the Jewish inhabitants of Sławatycze, including locals and refugees from surrounding settlements, were forced to move to the area near the Bug River, which, according to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, was then fenced off over time and, from 1942, considered a ghetto. Some Jewish artisans were allowed to run small businesses within the ghetto. By July 1941, about 24 tailors and shoemakers had craft licenses. Other Jews were forced into labor, and several young men were interned in the local labor camp.
The destruction of the Sławatycze Jewish community was carried out through a series of deportations and mass killings. In February 1940, between 41 and 50 Jews were killed by the Germans, and the victims’ corpses were then buried at the Jewish cemetery. In the spring of 1940, the Jewish population of Sławatycze decreased when expellees from the surrounding area were allowed to return home. In November or December 1941, some 45–50 Jews perished in a mass shooting that presumably took place in the area behind the elementary school. The victims were falsely denounced for stealing by a local ethnic German. A local witness interviewed by Yahad recalled three Jewish friends of her family: a Jewish man, Josko, his wife, Fejga, and their son, Szahel, killed on the denunciation of a German ethnic neighbor. Thus, by the end of 1941, 1,326 Jews remained in Sławatycze. This number included 50 deportees from Kraków and 192 from the surrounding area.
The deportation Aktion of June 1942 considerably reduced the number of Jews from Sławatycze, although historians disagree on the exact course of events. While some sources support the thesis that around 1,000 Jews from Sławatycze were deported to the Sobibor death camp, other historians maintain that the June deportation Aktion turned into a massacre of around 600 to 1,000 Jews who were rounded up in the town’s main square and shot before being buried in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery. According to other sources, on June 13, 1942, 200 Jews from Sławatycze were deported to the Łomazy ghetto by gendarmes from Wisznice and Sławatycze, where they and other ghetto inmates were subsequently killed in August 1942 in the nearby Hały forest by members of the 101st Reserve Police Battalion.
After the June 1942 Aktion, the remaining Jews were resettled in a residual ghetto in Sławatycze. Between September 25 and 29, 1942, the last ghetto inmates were deported to Międzyrzec Podlaski via Wisznice. The Aktion was conducted by the gendarmes from the Sławatycze and Wisznice posts, members of the 101st Reserve Police Battalion, with the help of the Polish policemen. During the deportation, Jewish men were forced to walk barefoot to prevent escape attempts, while elderly people were transported on carts driven by requisitioned Poles. Those who were too weak to follow the column were shot on the way. According to Polish archives, the victims’ bodies were then buried in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery, although Yahad’s witness stated that at least a number of victims were buried in several pits along the road passing near the Catholic cemetery. Upon reaching Wisznice, the deportees were sent to the ghetto in Międzyrzec Podlaski, from where they were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp on October 27, 1942.
Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?
Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17