Łosice | Mazovian

Łosice, town in the Biała Podlaska Voivodeship.

Ghetto. Established in November 1941, liquidated on August 22, 1942. It housed the Jewish population from Łosice, Sarnaki, as well as from Kalisz, Ciechocinek, Łódź, and Poznań, among other places; totaling approximately 5,500 people. Ghetto residents worked on road repairs, snow removal, and agricultural labor. During the liquidation of the ghetto, the Nazis deported its residents to the Treblinka extermination camp; some people were shot on-site in the ghetto. [source: AGK, ASG, sygn. 49, k. 141; Kolekcja „Ob”, sygn. 177; Kolekcja „Z”, sygn. 488/j, k. 23, 40. AP Warszawa, OT Siedlce, Akta gm. Łysów, sygn. 309, k. 24–26. CA KC PZPR, DR, sygn. 202/XV, t. 2, s. 295. „Biuletyn ŻIH” 1952, nr 1 (3), s. 122, 123; Eksterminacja Żydów na ziemiach polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej. Zbiór dokumentów, Warszawa 1957, s. 277.]

Łosice is a town in eastern Poland, seat of the Łosice County and Gmina Łosice (commune) in the Masovian Voivodeship, located approximately 118 km (73 mi) east of Warsaw.

The origins of the local Jewish community date back to the second half of the 17th century. By the 19th century, the town operated as a small provincial hub. Bypassed by major railway lines, local economic development progressed slowly and relied heavily on agricultural trade, particularly large-scale cucumber cultivation. In 1862, Jewish residents made up nearly half the population—838 people out of 1,755—while town infrastructure remained basic, featuring only six brick structures out of 199 houses. By 1884, the population had expanded to 2,610 inhabitants across 208 homes, supported by an established local synagogue.

During the interwar period, the town remained outside major industrial currents, though its population reached approximately 3,900 by 1928 as administrative jurisdiction shifted from the Konstantynów district to the Siedlce district. Jewish residents formed the backbone of local economic life, driving commercial enterprise, light manufacturing, and everyday services. They operated five bakeries, four mills, three oil mills, and a soap factory, alongside key trade links in grain, alcohol, potatoes, and freight transport.

Commerce was overwhelmingly Jewish-run, accounting for 34 of the town’s 39 grocery stores, as well as dozens of haberdasheries, dry goods shops, leather traders, and specialized retailers for tobacco, liquor, and colonial goods. Skilled Jewish artisans provided essential services as butchers, shoemakers, tailors, hatters, blacksmiths, locksmiths, and saddlers, while also running fifteen social venues, including tea houses, cafés, restaurants, and beer halls. Social infrastructure included a dedicated Jewish hospital on Drohicka Street (now Kościuszki Street). By 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, the town had grown to 5,730 inhabitants, with Jewish residents representing 48% of the total population (approximately 2,900 Jews).

Wehrmacht units first entered Łosice on September 12, 1939. Following the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, the Red Army briefly occupied the town before withdrawing behind the Bug River alongside many departing Jewish residents. German forces reoccupied Łosice in early October 1939, incorporating it into the Warsaw District of the General Government. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, early German bombings of the Jewish quarter and synagogue killed between 15 and 40 people, who were buried at the local Jewish cemetery. Shortly after, on November 29, 1939, seven Jewish individuals accused of being Communists were taken to the outskirts of town and killed.

In March 1940, a Judenrat, or Jewish Council, and a Jewish police unit were established in Łosice. The council was primarily responsible for providing forced labor to construct local barracks and maintain the vital Siedlce railway hub, alongside managing essential social services. By September 1941, the total Jewish population in Łosice rose to 4,600 people following the arrival of Jewish refugees from Łódź, Poznań, and neighboring towns such as Błaszki, Kalisz, Aleksandrów Łódzki, and Ciechocinek. This rapid influx caused extreme overcrowding and starvation.

In late 1941, a ghetto was established in Łosice, occupying the entire market square as well as several surrounding streets. On November 16, 1941, German forces shot 7 Jews caught outside the ghetto boundaries without a permit. During the winter of 1941 to 1942, 6 additional Jews were executed for burning their furs rather than surrendering them to German authorities. In the spring of 1942, Germans shot a number of Jewish refugees from Lublin and other towns who had sought shelter in the Łosice ghetto. Despite localized aid efforts from social welfare groups and medical personnel, living conditions deteriorated rapidly. The ghetto ultimately housed over 5,500 people, including 500 Jews transferred from Sarnaki in May 1942.

On August 22, 1942, the Łosice ghetto was liquidated during an Aktion carried out by SS and Ukrainian police units. The operation opened with the murder of the patients in the Jewish hospital. Numerous residents were shot in house raids and across the market square. The remaining Jews, approximately 5,000 individuals, were marched to Siedlce for deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Anyone too weak to maintain the pace was shot along the route. Polish locals were requisitioned to bury the victims at the Łosice Jewish cemetery, along the road, and in nearby forests.

A small residual ghetto was then established to house between 200 and 300 surviving Jews tasked with sorting looted Jewish property and luring fugitives back with false promises of safety. This secondary ghetto was completely liquidated on November 27, 1942, when its remaining inhabitants were deported to Treblinka. Only a small number of individuals survived the Holocaust through hidden shelters provided by local Polish families in the surrounding countryside.

During the German occupation, the Łosice Jewish cemetery served as both a killing ground and a mass burial site. It holds the remains of Jews killed throughout the town and ghetto, hospital patients, and victims of direct executions, including a mass shooting of captured survivors in February 1943. Because German forces destroyed the cemetery and documentation remains incomplete, the exact number of people buried there remains unknown.

For more information about the killing of Jews from Łosice during the ghetto liquidation along the road toward Siedlce, notably in Zawady, please refer to the corresponding profile.

https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/losice/losice.html