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Stanisław N., born in 1930: “The Jews were gathered in front of the Town Hall to be marched on foot to the Puławy train station. Among them was a very elderly Jewish man carrying a small cushion under his arm. He struggled to keep up with the column and was repeatedly pushed forward by a German soldier using the butt of his rifle. Eventually, the man collapsed, unable to continue. Without hesitation, the German shot him on the spot. I still remember a woman from Końskowola taking the cushion from him even before he passed away. On another occasion, the Germans executed the patients of the Jewish hospital located in the parish building. First, they brought six Jewish women into the courtyard and shot them. Afterward, they entered the hospital and killed everyone inside. The air was filled with the sounds of screams. Later, the sołtys ordered local men to transport the bodies to the cemetery for burial.” [Testimony N°YIU452P, interviewed in Końskowola, on April 3, 2015].
"It seems to me that in 1942 the Germans established a ghetto for Jews in Końskowola, which was located on Kurowska and Spokojna streets and in the parish house. The ghetto was in the Jewish houses, which were marked with a star. There were around 1,000 Jews in the ghetto, including women and children. The Jews came from the surrounding Polish areas: Baranowo, Kurowo, Deblin, Końskowola and Czechoslovakia. There was a typhoid epidemic in the ghetto due to the poor sanitary and living conditions. The Jews worked on the Gorna Niwa estate and built roads. [...] The Jews were murdered by German gendarmes who shot them with machine guns. 300 Jews died, probably. The Germans shot them on 'Brzezinki', in the sand mine and in other places. The bodies were buried on the spot. [...] The ghetto period lasted about 1 year, and during its liquidation the Jews who remained alive were forced to walk to the Puławy train station. I heard that during the march the Germans shot at the Jews." [Testimony of Stefan Owsiak, 60 years old, resident of Końskowola, collected on June 14, 1968; IPN S 19/05/Zn, Vol.6, p. 1177-78].
Końskowola is a town in eastern Poland, located approximately 42 km (26 miles) northwest of Lublin and 6 km (3.7 miles) east of Puławy.
Jewish settlement in Końskowola dates back to the mid-16th century, with records mentioning a Jewish printing house in the town. By 1661, 34 Jews lived in Końskowola, making up 6.5% of the population. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews constituted about half of the town's population, with 461 Jewish residents in 1787 (51% of the population) and 693 in 1821 (47% of the population).
By the late 18th century, Końskowola's Jewish community had become independent, with its own synagogue and cemetery. Jews primarily earned their livelihoods through trade, crafts, and the leasing of houses, yards, and gardens. During the 19th century, they acquired many brick houses near the Market Square and on nearby streets such as Kurowska. Jewish landlords owned shops, a tavern in the Town Hall building, and a significant portion of the town's economic infrastructure, including breweries, distilleries, wineries, mills, inns, and tile factories.
By the late 19th century, Końskowola's population totaled 2,776, with Jews making up 55% (1,535 individuals). The Jewish community actively participated in public life. A branch of the Bund was established in Końskowola before the First World War. Although the town suffered damage during the war, including the destruction of the “Great” synagogue, it was rebuilt in 1921.
During the interwar period, the Jewish community continued to thrive, owning a house of prayer, a mikveh, a ritual slaughterhouse, and a cemetery. Jewish merchants and artisans dominated the town's stores and service establishments. Political and cultural life flourished, with various parties and organizations active in the town, including Zionist groups, Aguda, and the Bund.
By 1939, the Jewish population of Końskowola numbered around 1,100, comprising 44% of the town's total residents.
German troops entered Końskowola on September 15, 1939. During the early months of the war, Jewish refugees from Warsaw and western Poland, as well as Jews from Puławy fleeing forced resettlement to Opole Lubelskie, sought refuge in the town.
Initially, Jews moved relatively freely within and beyond the borders of Końskowola, often bartering food with Poles. However, restrictions on movement and anti-Jewish measures were soon imposed. In early 1940, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established, and by late 1940 or early 1941, an open ghetto was created, encompassing the area between the market square and Starowiejska Street. By fall 1940, Jewish residents were required to paint large Stars of David on the exteriors of their homes. A 12-man gendarmerie post and a Polish Blue Police (granatowa) station were set up in the town, along with a collaborationist municipal council led by local Poles.
From 1940 to summer 1941, a labor camp operated in Końskowola, where approximately 400 Jews were forced into hard labor. In January 1941, a second labor camp was established for Jews from Końskowola, nearby areas, and expellees from the Warsaw Ghetto. They worked on road construction and cleaning tasks in Puławy, while the Judenrat was compelled to supply additional laborers for German-confiscated lands. In March 1941, 267 Jewish POWs, many in severe distress and suffering from typhus, were transferred to the Końskowola labor camp.
On May 1, 1942, the Germans arrested and likely executed the members of the Judenrat. A week later, on May 8, 1942, gendarmes and Ukrainian auxiliary police deported between 800 and 1,100 Jewish ghetto residents, first to Puławy and then to the Sobibor extermination camp. Witnesses reported that during the roundup, some elderly and infirm Jews unable to keep pace were shot.
Beginning on May 20, 1942, Końskowola was used as a regional assembly ghetto, receiving more than 2,000 Slovak Jews, including hundreds of elderly people and children. By the summer of 1942, conditions for the approximately 2,500 Jews in the ghetto had deteriorated drastically due to overcrowding, starvation, and forced labor.
The ghetto in Końskowola was liquidated during a final Aktion in October 1942. Units of the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, assisted by SS personnel from Lublin and about 100 Hilfswillige auxiliaries, carried out the operation. German officers killed between 100 and 500 Jews during the liquidation, including 40 to 50 patients from the ghetto hospital. Victims killed in the ghetto and the town center were transported to the Jewish cemetery and buried there. Approximately 800 to 1,000 Jews, including women and children, were taken to the nearby Brzezinki woods and massacred. The remaining ghetto inhabitants were deported to Majdanek and labor camps in the Lublin district.
Testimonies from local residents describe additional shootings of Jewish groups throughout the occupation. Victims were executed at a sand quarry near the Brzezinki woods and at the Jewish cemetery, which became the primary burial site for Jews murdered in the town.
In early spring 1943, the Końskowola labor camp was converted into a transit and residual ghetto for Jews deported from Warsaw and those who had survived hiding in nearby forests during the winter of 1942-1943. By May 1943, the remaining 18 prisoners were shot by gendarmes. The ghetto was finally liquidated in the summer of 1943.
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