Jedlińsk | Mazovian

“Franciszek C., a commander of a local police, participated in the killing of 56 Polish citizens of the Jewish origin in autumn 1943; took away their food and denounced to Germans the cases of  illegal slaughter carried out by Poles, as a result of which, some of them were sent to the concentration camps where they died.” [RG‐15.180M,Sąd Apelacyjny w Kielcach (SAK)(Sygn.GK217), 1945‐1966; File 157]

Jedlińsk is a town located 90 km south of Warsaw. The first records about the Jewish community dates back to the 18th century. In 1827, 157 Jews lived in Jedlinsk, but by 1867 its population grew up to 267. According to the 1921 census, the Jewish community numbered 762, making up 50% of the town’s entire population. According to the testimonies of the local residents, only Jews and Poles lived in the town. The Jews were mainly shopkeepers. They sell groceries, textiles and meat. There was a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. Before the German occupation, there were approximately 1,000 Jews in Jedlinsk.

Jedlinsk was occupied in September 1939. Immediately after the occupation the Jews fit to work were taken to the forced labor throughout the district by the Germans. All the commercial activities were banned by 1940. A Jewish police and a Judenrat were created. The open ghetto was established in the spring of 1941 and numbered over 1,000 Jews from Jedlińsk and surrounding villages, such as Przytyk and Blotnica. However, according to one of the witnesses interviewed by Yahad, there were two ghettos, one was located on the Pocztowa street and another one- on the Warecka street.  There were no guards around.  All the Jewish inmates were forced to wear distinctive armbands in form of a Star of David. At the beginning of 1942, it was forbidden to leave the ghetto under threat of death. However, some Jews managed to escape and stayed in hiding. During 1942, several of them were caught and executed afterwards.  The liquidation of the ghetto took place in the summer of 1942. During the liquidation aktion the majority of Jews was transported to Bialobrzegi ghetto and then to the Treblinka death camp.  The remaining 68 Jews, mostly old and sick, were killed on the spot, in Jedlińsk.  According to some sources, in December 1942, a labor camp for “Baudienst” was created, as well as a camp for the Jews. Some 2,000 Poles and Jews were detained there. It was liquidated in February 1944. Before the liquidation, in Autumn 1943, according to the Polish archives, 56 Jews from the camp were shot in Jedlińsk. Today there is no any memorial at the two killings sites identified by Yahad.