Niwy (Cisów) | Holly Cross Voivdeship

/ The corner of Kilińskiego street, the site of a prewar synagogue in Daleszyce. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Henryk C., born in 1933: “There was a synagogue on the corner of Kilińskiego Street in Daleszyce. The Jews owned bakeries, a sawmill and different stores. There was a Jewish cemetery here, which is now a forest.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Włodzimierz K., born in 1934: “The total number of Jewish residents in Cisów was around 12. I remember a Jewish shopkeeper by the name of Sima. He had two daughters, Ruchla and Hanna.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum Włodzimierz K., born in 1934: “The Jews from Cisów were shot near the bridge, on the road to Daleszyce, in the winter of 1942. Only Hanna managed to hide in the forest for a year but was also eventually shot by the Germans.” ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unu The killing site of circa. 10 Jews from Cisów, murdered by the Germans in the winter of 1942. The site is located near the bridge over the Blinianka river at Niwy, on the road between Cisów to Daleszyce. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The old Jewish cemetery in the village of Niwy, where the Cisów Jews murdered near the Niwy bridge were buried. Today, no trace of the cemetery remains, but the memory of it is preserved among local residents. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum The location of the former Jewish cemetery near Niwy, where 10 Jews killed by the Germans in 1942 were buried. Today, a forest grows in its place. Neither the cemetery nor the mass grave are commemorated in any way. ©Pawel Szupiluk/Yahad - In Unum

Destruction of Jews from Cisów in Niwy

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Jewish cemetery
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
About 10

Witness interview

Włodzimierz K., born in 1934: "It was the winter of 1942, and the Jews were ordered to gather at the bottom of Cisów near the school building. I was a child at the time, curious, and like many other children, I ran around trying to see what was happening. All the Jews were forced to board requisitioned carts, which were driven by Polish villagers forced to transport them. The carts carried them from Cisów to Daleszyce, a town approximately 9 kilometers away as the crow flies, but about 19 kilometers by road. The Jews carried small bundles with them, likely packed with their most essential belongings. Once all the Jews had been taken to Daleszyce, none remained in Cisów. The only exception was Hanna, the 18-year-old daughter of Sima. She managed to evade deportation and hid in the forest for nearly a year. But she was eventually betrayed, captured, and killed. Hanna occasionally came to our home for water and visited other villagers to ask for food." (Witness N°1353P, interviewed in Cisów, on August 23, 2022)

Historical note

There is no available documentation on the Jewish community of Niwy. However, we can assume that both Niwy and Cisów, located approximately 7 km from Niwy, were part of the Jewish community of the nearby town of Daleszyce, which was officially established in 1869. A wooden synagogue was erected there in 1894, and by 1909, a Jewish cemetery was established between the road to Staszów and Napęków.

In 1921, the Daleszyce kehilla (Jewish communal organization) included not only Daleszyce but also the surrounding villages of Górno, Cisów, Ociesęki, and Szczecno. During the interwar period, Daleszyce was classified as an urban settlement, with a population of 3,059 in 1930. The town was home to several notable Jewish businesses, which contributed to the local economy. Among them were a dyeing plant owned by I. Szternfeld, sawmills operated by A. Machtyngier and M. Krysztal, a mill owned by M. Machtyngier, tailoring shops run by Sz. Apel, R. Hirszman, and G. Zajdenberg, bakeries managed by M. and Sz. Bekerman, a carpentry workshop run by N. Pasternak and H. Frajdman, and a carbonated water factory owned by S. Guterman. Other Jewish businesses included textile merchants such as P. Sztarkman and I. Szternfeld, a haberdashery owned by B. Frajman, meat vendors including B. Langwald, J. Sztarkman, and M. Zylberberg, and grocers like K. Bekierman, B. Kuperberg, and K. Wajnsztok.

By 1929, the community had a wooden synagogue, a well-maintained cemetery, a bathhouse, and a mikveh. In 1937, the Jewish population of Daleszyce numbered 525 people.

According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, at least four Jewish families lived in Cisów before World War II. Cisów was a small village about 7 km from Niwy with a modest Jewish population. The witness recalls a Jewish man named Zalek Podstolski, who was a baker and owned a bakery where he also delivered bread to local residents. Another prominent figure was Sima, a shopkeeper who had two daughters, Ruchla and Hanna. Additionally, there were two other Jewish families in Cisów, although their names were unknown to the witness. According to the same account, the total Jewish population of Cisów before the war was approximately twelve individuals.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The municipality of Daleszyce fell under German occupation in September 1939. Archival records do not provide specific details about the fate of the Jewish communities in Niwy or Cisów. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, both villages were part of the Jewish municipality of Daleszyce.

According to the testimony of a local witness interviewed by Yahad, during the winter of 1942, the Jews of Cisów were forcibly gathered near the school building. From there, they were loaded onto carts driven by requisitioned Polish villagers and transported toward Daleszyce. However, as the convoy approached the bridge near the village of Niwy, a group of around ten Jews from Cisów, primarily elderly individuals, were executed by gunfire. Their bodies were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Niwy, located approximately 800m away.

The remaining Jews from Cisów who survived this massacre were taken to Daleszyce. While specific details of their fate remain unknown, it is presumed that they shared the same tragic end as the Jews of Daleszyce. Almost the entire Jewish population of Daleszyce and its surrounding areas was deported to the Bodzentyn ghetto and, subsequently, to the Treblinka extermination camp.

In September 1942, the synagogue in Daleszyce was destroyed. The Jewish cemetery met a similar fate; after the war, the remaining matzevot (gravestones) were looted and repurposed to rebuild structures that had been damaged or destroyed during the German occupation.

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