Kuńkowce | Subcarpathian Voivodeship

/ Emil S., born in 1931: “There were a few Jews in Kuńkowce before the war. They owned a sawmill, a brewery and a shop. There was also a Jew who was married to a Polish woman, he worked at the mill and the sawmill.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Unum Emil S., born in 1931: “At the beginning of the occupation, the Jews fled from Kuńkowce. There was a man named Bochenko who led them across the San River on a boat, to the Soviet side of the border. I don’t know what happened to them.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad Emil S., born in 1931: “No Jews returned to Kuńkowce after the war. Only the Jew who was married to the Polish woman remained in Kuńkowce during the whole period of occupation.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Unum Emil S. led the Yahad team to the Łętownia fort. In 1940-1941, the Wehrmacht was stationed in the fort. Executions of Jews and Poles were carried out here. On June 3, 1942, 66 Jews were shot and buried on the territory of the fort. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Emil S., born in 1931: “The Jews were shot and buried here. The bodies were exhumed after the war. The memorial was put a bit further, not on the exact spot of the mass grave.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Unum The memorial and the commemorative plaque honoring the victims killed by the Nazi occupants, including 66 Jews from Przemyśl shot and buried on the territory of the fort on June 3, 1942. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Unum “Eternal memory to the victims of Nazi fascism brutally murdered in Kuńkowce in May and June 1942.” Bodies of the Jewish victims were exhumed after the war and reburied on the Jewish cemetery in Przemyśl. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews from Przemyśl in Kuńkowce

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Old artillery fort
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
66

Witness interview

Emil S., born in 1931: “When the war began, the Russian-German border was established very close on the San River. A fence was put up right along the border. It was a barbed wire fence, 1.5m high. At the beginning of the German occupation, the Jews fled from Kuńkowce. There was a man named Bochenko who led them across the San River on a boat, to the Soviet side of the border. Jewish families were transported one after another. The man who transported the Jews was paid quite well for this work, but the last time he went there he never returned. He was killed by the Russians across the border.” (Witness N°1391P, interviewed in Kuńkowce, on September 27, 2022)

Historical note

Kuńkowce is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Przemyśl, within Przemyśl County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland close to the border with Ukraine. It lies approximately 5 km (3 mi) north-west of Przemyśl and 58 km (36 mi) southeast of the regional capital Rzeszów. Until 1947, it had 690 inhabitants: 200 Ukrainians, 480 Poles (including 200 colonists) and 10 Jews.  According to Yahad witness Emil S., born in 1931, there was a sawmill in Kuńkowce that belonged to a Jewish man named Goldman. In front of the sawmill, there was a shop owned by a Jewish woman named Rywka. Another Jew from the village owned a brewery. The biggest Jewish community in the surrounding area was to be found in Przemyśl. In 1939, Jews constituted 34.1% of the total population. After the outbreak of the Second World War, many Jewish refugees from areas further to the west took refuge in the town.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Not much is known about the fate of a small Jewish community from Kuńkowce. According to Yahad witness Emil S., born in 1939, the majority of the local Jews managed to flee to the Soviet side of the German-Soviet border, established along the San River in September 1939. Their fate remains unknown. At the end of September 1939, almost all of the Jews from Przemyśl were driven to the Soviet occupation zone (the German-Soviet demarcation line ran through the middle of the town). The remaining 66 people were forced to live in two buildings surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, in a so-called “small ghetto” created in 1940. They were ultimately murdered in neighboring Kuńkowce in June 1942. The victims were mainly sick and elderly people. Next to Fort VIII Łętownia - north of the village of Kuńkowce - there is a memorial for the victims of those executions. After the liberation, the bodies were exhumed and moved to the Jewish cemetery in Przemyśl.

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