2 Killing site(s)
Stanisława J., born in 1930: "I don’t think they were given any food in the camp. I saw them eating weeds. Every day, someone died. A burial site was created in the forest for them, and that’s where they were buried. Prisoners carried the dead on stretchers to the forest—I saw this happen every day. They ate the worst things imaginable. How long can anyone survive under such conditions?" (Testimony N°YIU698P, interviewed in Dąbrowa Kozłowska, on June 12, 2017)
Dąbrowa Kozłowska, located approximately 12 km (7 mi) from Radom and about 100 km (62 mi) south of Warsaw, was established as a separate village around 1844 during the division of forest lands and the privatization of the Kozłów estate. Its name reflects its origins: "Dąbrowa" refers to the oak forest that had grown in the area since the early 19th century, while "Kozłowska" is derived from the nearby village of Kozłów, which dates back to the Jagiellonian era.
Before the Second World War, Dąbrowa Kozłowska was inhabited exclusively by Poles, with no Jewish residents. In the early 20th century, the village was notable for hosting a secret branch of the Polish Socialist Party.
Dąbrowa Kozłowska was occupied by German forces in September 1939. Following the occupation, the village was designated as a military training ground. The local Polish population was displaced, and their houses were destroyed by the Germans, who used the buildings for target practice. In 1942, a Soviet POWlabor camp, referred to as a "Kommando," was established in Dąbrowa Kozłowska. The camp housed an average of 400 prisoners at a time, including Jews deported from the Radom ghetto, Soviet POWs, and other individuals. The camp was liquidated in 1943.
The camp was surrounded by two rows of barbed wire, with a patrolled path in between. Two to four watchtowers were positioned along the perimeter, including one at the entrance. Around seven German soldiers served as guards, living separately from the prisoners and maintaining their own kitchen. Gendarmes were stationed nearby in Siczki. Within the camp, there was only one building; most prisoners were forced to sleep outdoors.
Camp inmates were subjected to grueling forced labor, including clearing and regulating the Pacynka River, building roads, and digging trenches behind the village of Stoki. Many prisoners were also employed in railroad construction projects, particularly in Jedlnia-Letnisko, as well as in the construction of bunkers and fortifications. Prisoners were marched to work in columns, organized in rows of three. Although the camp had a kitchen, food was scarce, and hunger was omnipresent. Prisoners resorted to eating grass, despite the Germans spreading lime on the ground to deter them. Local inhabitants occasionally managed to provide food to inmates, defying German prohibitions.
Mortality in the camp was extremely high, with an estimated 1,000 victims over the course of its operation. According to some sources, in 1943, 100 Jews were shot in Dąbrowa Kozłowska by the Gendarmes. Every day, prisoners carried the bodies of the deceased on stretchers to burial sites outside the camp under German supervision. The corpses were covered with lime. Initially, burials took place in a field near the camp buildings, but later a second burial site was established in the forest on the village outskirts.
In November 1948, 90 bodies were exhumed from the first burial site and reburied in the second, which already contained 194 graves. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, it is likely that not all the bodies from the first site were reburied in the second.
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