1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Krzysztof N., born in 1935: "Around 30 to 35 German men in black uniforms arrived at 6 a.m. in Wehrmacht trucks. The liquidation of the ghetto began immediately and was carried out by the German unit, assisted by a Pole from Janów who beat the Jews. In just an hour and a half, they took all the Jews away. The Jews were gathered on Brzeska Street before being taken to Biała Podlaska. Most walked, while the weak were loaded onto requisitioned carts driven by locals who had also been conscripted by the sołtys. The Jews were only carrying small bags. I was near the synagogue, close to the column, and I saw everything. The column was formed around 7 a.m., and I remember hearing the Jews crying and shouting—it was terrible. There were about eight people per row in the column, which stretched 300 meters. The carts followed behind. German soldiers from the battalion guarded the column on all sides. The soldiers had to walk the entire 20 km journey. The carts carried the elderly, the sick, and small children—but not their mothers." [Testimony N°YIU991P, interviewed in Janów Podlaski, on March 26, 2019]
"Surveys of the District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Lublin collected in 1968-1969 concerning the places and facts of Nazi crimes in the Biała Podlaska district:
In October 1942 at 10 am, gestapo officers traveling in the direction of Hołodnica-Rokitno met two Jewish women on the road, Ruzal Czerny and Rywka Kaufm, who were returning from Werchliś. They were stopped near the parish cemetery and were shot there by three Gestapo men". [Established in Lublin, on December 9, 1968; IPN Lu 501/4]
In December 1942, in a forest called "Udokowiec", on Czeslaw Kalenda’s plot, Schutzpolizei officers murdered three Jews: Szaja Ruzal (36 years old), Szloma Ruzal (32 years old) and Aron Ruzal (28 years old). The Jews murdered were butchers from Janów Podlaski. They were murdered in their shelter in a field, pelted with grenades and then doused with gasoline and burned." [Established in Lublin on June 1, 1968; IPN Lu 501/4]
"The list of the victims murdered during the occupation in Jawow Podlaski.
Place and date of dead: Janów Podlaski / 1942.
- Boruch Epelbaum, age 58, trader, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski, Rynek street.
- Aron Szerman, age 28, hairdresser, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski, Brzeska street,
- Herszko Kaufman, age 53, butcher, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski, 1 Maja street.
- Peretz Rydlewicz, age 25, painter, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski, Siedlecka street.
- Icko Szyja, age 26, miller, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski,
- Mejer Edelkopf, age 26, butcher, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski, Siedlecka street,
Icko Rubinsztejn, age 24, last place of residence: Janów Podlaski. " [IPN Lu 504/2]
Janów Podlaski is a town in Biała Podlaska County in eastern Poland, near the border with Belarus. It lies approximately 20 km (12 miles) north of Biała Podlaska and 115 km (71 miles) northeast of the regional capital, Lublin.
The earliest surviving records indicating the presence of Jews in Janów Podlaski date back to 1583 and reference a synagogue that already existed at that time. By the early 18th century, a self-governing Jewish community had been established, complete with a synagogue, a Beit Midrash, and a cemetery. Jews played a significant role in the town’s economic development throughout the 18th century, with trade and moneylending as their primary sources of income.
By the mid-19th century, the community had founded several charitable and relief institutions, including Bikur Cholim. In 1904, a local cell of the Bund party was established. While the community remained largely religiously traditional, secular and Zionist movements began to gain momentum among its youth.
Between 1863 and 1921, the Jewish population of Janów Podlaski grew significantly—from 865 people (46% of the town’s population) to 2,100 people (63%). During the interwar period, the town had a vibrant Jewish political and cultural life, with branches of Hashomer Hatzair, Poalei Zion (Left and Right), Hechalutz, Hamizrachi, and Agudath Israel. A small underground communist group was also active. Jewish children attended cheder, Talmud Torah, and the local Polish public school.
In the second half of the 1930s, the economic situation in Janów Podlaski deteriorated sharply due to the worsening national economic crisis and the town’s loss of status as a district capital. As a result, many young Jews sought opportunities abroad.
On the eve of the Second World War, approximately 1,713 Jews lived in Janów Podlaski.
In early September 1939, Janów Podlaski was occupied by the Red Army. However, in early October, the Soviets withdrew and handed the town over to German forces. During the Soviet retreat, approximately 200 to 400 Jews fled across the Bug River to the Soviet-occupied zone. On October 9, 1939, German troops officially took control of Janów Podlaski. A border guard unit was stationed in the town to secure the Bug River frontier, located about 4 km northeast of Janów. The center of the German repressive apparatus was based in Biała Podlaska, where posts of the Gendarmerie and Gestapo were established.
In late 1939, the Germans created a Jewish Council (Judenrat) in Janów Podlaski. In 1940, they transformed the Jewish quarter into an open ghetto. By April 1942, the ghetto housed over 2,000 Jews, including around 300 refugees from nearby villages. According to a local witness, the ghetto encompassed four streets—Brzeska, Szkolna, Konopnicka, and Rynek—and was marked by a white line drawn on the ground. The synagogue, located outside the ghetto, was dismantled; its stones were reused to build a runway at the Małaszewicze Duże airfield.
Life in the ghetto was marked by severe hardship: overcrowding, limited access to clean water, and little to no employment opportunities beyond forced labor. From 1940 onwards, local Polish farmers could requisition Jewish laborers, and in some cases, Jewish children were allowed to live outside the ghetto while working. Some Jews were forced to perform unpaid labor at the Wygoda horse farm. By mid-1941, in the context of Operation Barbarossa and the invasion of the Soviet Union, many Jewish artisans were sent to a labor camp in Biała Podlaska to serve the Wehrmacht.
Before the liquidation of the Janów Podlaski ghetto in September 1942, at least nine Jews were killed in the town. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, nine prominent Jewish residents—eight men and one woman, all merchants—were shot by gendarmes from Bielsko-Biała near the Jewish cemetery, in a roadside ditch leading toward Biała Podlaska. Polish archives confirm the names of seven Jewish victims killed in Janów in 1942. The same witness also recalled seeing a Wehrmacht soldier shoot a Jewish man in his thirties in the town center during the ghetto's existence. The burial site of this man remains unknown. However, the Yahad team located a mass grave in a roadside ditch believed to contain the bodies of the nine victims.
On September 19, 1942, the head of the Gestapo in Biała Podlaska ordered the deportation of 1,800 Jews from Janów Podlaski, including those in forced labor outside the town, to the Biała Podlaska ghetto. The deportation Aktion took place on September 23–24, 1942. Only a small group of prisoners from
the Wygoda horse farm labor camp was exempted. Local witnesses recall seeing large groups of Jews gathered on Brzeska Street, then forced to march toward Biała Podlaska. One witness described a Polish resident assisting the gendarmes and Gestapo in beating the deportees with a wooden stake.
For two days, roughly 1,800 Jews traveled by foot and horse-drawn carts the 20 km to Biała Podlaska. Between September 26 and October 1, 1942, approximately 4,800 Jews—including 3,000 from Janów Podlaski and Konstantynów—were deported from Biała Podlaska to the Międzyrzec Podlaski ghetto. Members of Reserve Police Battalion 101 subsequently liquidated the Międzyrzec ghetto on October 6 and 9, 1942. Its residents, including Jews from Janów, were transported to the Treblinka death camp.
Many Jews from Janów attempted to escape the liquidation of the region’s ghettos and labor camps. Some found shelter with local Christian families, notably the Iwaniuk and Mironiuk families, who played a key role in organizing hiding places for surviving Jews in the area. However, Polish archives also document additional killings of Jews in Janów after the ghetto's liquidation. In October 1942, two Jewish women were shot by Gestapo officers near the parish cemetery. In December 1942, three Jewish men hiding in a bunker in a forest called "Udokowiec" were killed when Schutzpolizei officers threw a grenade into the bunker and set it on fire. In April 1943, a unit of Schutzpolizei and gendarmes executed seven Jewish men from Janów in a forest and in a field near the village of Cieleśnica.
The exact number of survivors from Janów Podlaski is unknown. However, sources indicate that in addition to enduring German persecution during the occupation, the surviving Jews who returned after the war faced renewed violence. In March 1946, five of the 27 Jewish returnees were murdered by members of the Polish underground. The remaining survivors were forced to leave Janów Podlaski permanently.
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