Maly Plock/ Msciwuje | Bialystok

/ Entrance to Maly Plock, Poland © Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum Wladyslaw L., born in 1922, saw a mass shooting of Jews in an anti-tank trench © Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum Antoni B., born in 1909, and his wife, "The trucks arrived one after another. Once empty, it left to take other Jews. There were many little children. I saw a woman with a baby in her arms standing close to the pit..." © Markel Redondo – Yahad – In Unum Wladyslaw L. is leading the research team to the execution site. © Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum “It was a long trench dug by machines to stop the Russian tanks” © Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum “When the trench was full at one place, they covered it and they continued the shooting a bit further, and so on” © Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum

Execution site of Jews in Msciwuje

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Anti-tank trench
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1939-1944

Witness interview

Wladyslaw L., born in 1922, recalls:”I saw them from about one kilometer away. I was at the edge of the forest, there were a few of us watching. The trucks were coming one after another. The Jews were pushed into the pit and then they were shot. Even when the pit was covered, the soil was still moving. At the very end, the Germans poured some liquid over the pit and the grave caved in. But we couldn’t get any closer, the Germans didn’t let anyone pass.” (Eyewitness N°309, interviewed in Maly Plock, on May 10, 2014)

Polish Archives

Court inquiries about executions and mass graves
1. Date and place of execution: forest near Msciwuje village; 1941;
2. Type of execution (shooting, hanging or other): shooting;
3. Personal data of the executed victims (Polish, Jews, other nationalities): Jews;
Number of executed victims: about 4000 people;
Origin of the victims: village of Maly Plock, Stawisk, Kolna and Lomza;
(Deposition of Franciszek B.,45 years old; RG-15.019M Reel#1)

Historical note

Maly Plock is village in Kolo county, in north-eastern Poland, in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. In 1921, 8, 2% of the whole Kolo county population was Jewish. There were about ten Jewish families in Maly Plock before World War II. They were mainly traders.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

When the war broke out, all the Jews from Maly Plock; as well as from nearby towns and villages such as Stawiski, Kolno, Lomza, etc. were gathered in a school building in Katy. Soon after, they were taken in trucks to Msciwuje, where they were shot and buried in a large anti-tank trench. The mass shootings of Jews from Kolno county lasted for several days. According to the archives, more than 4,000 Jews were shot in Msciwuje.

Other links

Nearby villages

  • Katy
  • Jedwabne
To support the work of Yahad-in Unum please consider making a donation

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