1 Killing site(s)
Zofia L., born in 1934: “One day, all the Jews from Wąwolnica were rounded up and taken to the train station in Nałęczów. It was a long column made up of entire families. They gathered in the main square and passed right in front of my house. I watched them from my window. Among them, I saw the man who used to run the kosher butcher shop in the village. He tried to break away from the column and escape. He almost made it around the corner, but he was spotted—and a German soldier shot him on the spot. Later, another column of Jews passed through Wąwolnica, this time from the Poniatowa labor camp, also headed toward the train station in Nałęczów. A young Jewish woman from Wąwolnica was among them. She had been our neighbor before being deported to Poniatowa, and we knew her well. She had given birth to a child in the camp, and as the column moved through the village, she arranged with the guards to stop briefly so she could visit our house. She arrived in a panic and asked for soap, knowing my mother used to make it. My mother quickly prepared what she could—we had to be fast. The young woman took the soap and some bread, then rejoined the column and continued on.” [Testimony N°YIU821P, interviewed in Wąwolnica, on June 16, 2018]
1) "In January 1942 someone killed the head of the Arbentsamt [work office]. Two weeks later, in February, gendarmes from Puławy came to Wąwolnica and ordered members of the Judenrat to gather the local Jewish men in the square next to "Targowica". When the Jews were gathered in the designated area, the Germans lined them up and shot them. According to the witness Jozef Siwicki, who was near the execution site, the Germans brought in the Polish population to witness the execution. Siwicki was therefore among the witnesses. The Germans lined up the Jews and shot them with pistols. The murdered Jews were dragged from the edge of the street into the square by two Jewish Council members. After killing of all the Jews present, the two Jews [Council members] were also killed. They [the Germans] then killed 76 people. The bodies were left there all night. The next day, the families took the bodies to the Jewish cemetery and buried them there". [The Record of Findings of the Investigation into the Execution of the Jewish Population of Wąwolnica, Powiat Puławy, District Court of Lublin, 5 June 1972; IPN-OKL, Ds 59/71/Pł]
2)"Village of Wąwolnica, powiat Puławy; kind of repression: shooting; date: 1944 - during the march of a Jewish column from the Poniatowa camp to the railway station in Nałęczów, perpetrator: SS; description: In early 1944 the Germans led a column of Jews of various nationalities, including women, from the Poniatowa camp to the Nałęczów train station. During the march of the column, which numbered several hundred people, German guards shot anyone who could no longer walk, who stayed behind, or who simply strayed from the column. As they passed through Wąwolnica, they killed about 60 people of different sexes. Polish Jews were among the marchers and among those killed, because they were unable to move forward due to exhaustion. These Jews were taken to the barracks in Strzelce, on the road of Nałęczów, where Soviet soldiers had previously been detained. From there, train transports were formed for deportation to an unknown destination. Before being deported, many Jews died of hunger in inhuman living conditions." [Questionnaire of the Research Commission on Nazi Crimes in Warsaw, Poland, established on November 11, 1968, in Puławy; IPN-OKL, Ds. 59/71/Pł.]
Wąwolnica is a town in Puławy County, located 19 km (12 miles) southeast of Puławy and 31 km (19 miles) west of the regional capital, Lublin. It is one of the oldest settlements in the Lublin Voivodeship, with the first recorded mention dating back to 1027.
By 1771, there were four Jewish households in Wąwolnica, and from that point onward, the local Jewish community grew rapidly—both economically and demographically. A synagogue was built in the late 18th or early 19th century, and a cemetery was established in the early 1800s. At the time, Jews were primarily involved in trade of agricultural products and various handicrafts.
By the early 1900s, the Jewish population had reached approximately 836 people. Many operated shops and workshops centered around the market square, and Jewish entrepreneurs owned two local mills.
The interwar period brought significant economic hardship to the Jewish community. A major fire in 1927 further exacerbated the situation, rendering over 200 residents—mostly Jews—homeless. Despite these challenges, political and communal life remained active. Zionist organizations gained substantial support and came to lead many community institutions. The Agudah party was also active, focusing on charitable and educational work.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Jewish community of Wąwolnica maintained a synagogue, a mikveh, a ritual slaughterhouse, and a cemetery. Jewish children attended two private chederim (religious schools), as well as the local public school, where they made up about one-fifth of the student body.
In 1921, the 1,043 Jews living in Wąwolnica represented nearly 35% of the town’s population. By 1939, this number had slightly declined to around 900 residents.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Wąwolnica was briefly occupied by German forces in mid-September 1939. In the early months of the occupation, the German civil administration in the town relatively spared the local Jewish population from persecution. As a result, numerous Jewish refugees from surrounding areas sought refuge in Wąwolnica. By January 1940, around 800 refugees had arrived, including several hundred Jews from the nearby town of Kurów.
However, beginning in early 1940, the situation began to deteriorate. The German authorities ordered the formation of a Jewish Council (Judenrat) and imposed registration requirements on Jews. Local Jews were forbidden from engaging in commercial activities, and in the spring of that year, the synagogue in Wąwolnica was raided, and the Jewish population was robbed of their valuables.
Further anti-Jewish restrictions were introduced in the spring of 1941. The suspension of food rations made it increasingly difficult for the roughly 2,000 Jews living in the town to survive. Around 200–300 refugees from Kurów were forced to leave Wąwolnica during this time. Although the Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) organization provided some assistance, it was not enough to prevent the outbreak of a typhus epidemic in April 1941. Living and sanitary conditions continued to deteriorate.
A number of Jews were conscripted as forced laborers—some sent to a brick factory in nearby Łopatki, others to a labor camp established on the Błonice estate. Jews were also forced to perform labor within Wąwolnica itself, including dismantling the synagogue and using its stones to pave a road near the bridge over the Bystra River.
In February 1942 (according to some sources, in the spring of 1941), the Jews of Wąwolnica were confined to an open ghetto. That same month, according to Polish archival records, a contingent of the Puławy gendarmerie arrived and ordered the Judenrat to gather Jewish men at the Targowica square in the town center. There, they were executed. On the same day, two Polish residents were also shot. Seventy-six Jewish victims were buried the next day in the Jewish cemetery.
Other sources describe an Aktion in the Wąwolnica ghetto between March 22 and 24, 1942, marking the first stage of the ghetto’s liquidation. During this operation, between 40 and 120 Jewish men were murdered in the cemetery. A local witness interviewed by Yahad recalled that in winter, a group of Jewish men were assembled near Targowica, stripped of their valuables and coats, lined up in groups of ten, and shot. Their bodies were taken to the cemetery the following day for burial.
Following these executions, a number of ghetto inmates—according to some estimates, as many as 1,450—were deported to the Nałęczów railway station and from there sent directly to the Bełżec death camp. At least one Jewish man was reportedly killed in the town during the deportation. According to other accounts, the liquidation began on March 29, 1942, carried out by German forces assisted by Ukrainian auxiliaries. During the Aktion, the Jews of Wąwolnica—up to 2,000 individuals—were transferred to the Opole Lubelskie ghetto. From there, about 800 were sent to the Poniatowa labor camp, while the rest were deported to Bełżec.
In May 1942, the remaining Jews in Wąwolnica—between 40 and 50 individuals—were sent to labor camps in the area, including the brickyard camp in Łopatki. By late summer or fall 1942, they were taken to the forest between Łopatki and Karmanowice, known locally as the “Twisted Forest,” where they were executed and buried.
Some sources suggest that a small number of Jews remained in Wąwolnica until October 1943. At that time, they were assembled in the market square—joined by Jews from Nałęczów—and led to Rogalów Hill, where 9 or 10 were shot.
Polish archives also document a massacre of approximately 60 Jews by SS men in early 1944, during the forced march of Poniatowa labor camp inmates through Wąwolnica to the Nałęczów railway station. According to eyewitness testimony, Jews originally from Wąwolnica were among those killed.
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