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1 Killing site(s)
Marianna K., born in 1931: “In the summer of 1942—or maybe it was 1943—Jews were killed here in the forest. The day before the killing, villagers, including my brother, were ordered by the sołtys [village head] to form a brigade. Their task was to guard the homes of Jewish families so they wouldn’t escape during the night. There were six families to watch over—three local families and three refugee families from Łódź. The next day, the Germans gathered the Jews and marched them to the forest. One of them was a man who was lame. He didn’t even make it to the killing site—they shot him beforehand, and I could see his body from our yard. The rest—men, women, and children—were murdered together. After we heard the shots, I and some other children went to the site. We saw the bodies. No one else was there—just the dead and the blood. We recognized some of the victims. There hadn’t been a grave prepared beforehand. The pit was dug afterwards, and the bodies were buried in a mass grave.” [Testimony N°YIU719P, interviewed in Stanisławów, on August 14, 2017]
“I remember in detail the execution of the Jewish population by German gendarmes in the village of Stanisławów in September 1942. I don’t recall the exact date, but I believe it was around September 23, 1942. The gendarmes—more than a dozen of them—arrived in Stanisławów in the afternoon, coming by bicycle from Józefów.
When they got there, the gendarmes took over the school building and ordered the village mayor, Jan Berdzik (now deceased), to assign guards to the homes where Jews were living. At that time, three Jewish families lived in Stanisławów, along with three families of Jewish refugees who were temporarily staying in the village.
At dawn the next day, the Germans rounded up all the Jews and marched them to the nearby forest, about 200m from the village. There, they forced the Jews to lie face down in a line and executed them with automatic weapons, shooting them in the back of the head.
I was standing near the wooden fence that surrounded the houses, and because the forest was small, I could see what was happening. I saw the executions. I also saw one of the gendarmes kicking the bodies of those who had been shot. When one of the victims showed signs of life, he finished him off with a pistol shot.
After the gendarmes had left, I went to the site with others. We saw the bodies of the murdered Jews. I personally counted them—28 people in total, including men, women, and children. I didn’t know their full names, but I remember a few first names: Jankiel, Szymon, Major, Mechel, Josek, Chaim… and others I can no longer recall.
The bodies of the victims were buried in the forest, at the same place where they were killed. They remain there to this day.” [Minutes of the Municipal Court in Tyszowice, dated September 28, 1945; IPN, 337 0189]
Stanisławów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Józefów, within Biłgoraj County, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 8 km (5 miles) northeast of Józefów, 28 km (17 miles) east of Biłgoraj, and 89 km (55 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Lublin.
According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad–In Unum, three Jewish families lived in Stanisławów before the war. They were engaged in small-scale trade and maintained close ties with the nearby town of Józefów, which had a vibrant Jewish community. Before the war, Józefów was home to around 2,000 Jews, who made up approximately 60% of the town’s population.
Stanisławów was occupied by German troops in mid-September 1939. While there was no gendarmerie or post of the Polish Granatowa (Blue) Police in the village itself, German forces were stationed in nearby Józefów, 8 km away, and regularly patrolled the surrounding area.
The small prewar Jewish community of Stanisławów, composed of three families engaged in small-scale trade, grew after the German occupation with the arrival of three additional Jewish refugee families, presumably from Łódź. The Jews were allowed to remain in their homes until September 1942, when all six families were murdered in a mass execution carried out by gendarmes from Józefów.
On the day before the massacre, the Jewish residents were ordered to remain inside their homes. A group of Polish villagers, appointed by the sołtys (village head), was assigned to guard each house during the night to prevent any attempted escape. The following day, German gendarmes arrived in Stanisławów, gathered all six families, and marched them to a nearby forest.
According to a witness interviewed by Yahad, one Jewish man was shot in the village during the march to the execution site. The remaining victims were forced to lie face down on the ground and were shot in the back of the head with automatic weapons. After the massacre, a pit was dug at the site and the bodies were buried in a mass grave.
The site remained unmarked for decades. It was only in 2020 that the burial site was officially commemorated with the erection of a monument honoring the victims.
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