1 Killing site(s)
Janusz Ś., born in 1933: "The Jews who could fit through the small windows of the cattle cars jumped out. A mother jumped first, and then they threw her child after her. The guards shot the woman. The child survived—he was perhaps two years old, not yet walking. He cried out, ‘Mama, Mama.’ A railway patrol followed the train on a draisine, finishing off those who had jumped. They killed the child at the station, shooting him in the back of the head." (Testimony N°YIU468P, interviewed in Kostki, on July 24, 2015)
Kostki is a village in Poland, situated in the Mazovian Voivodeship, Sokołów County, within the Gmina Sokołów Podlaski. Before the war, the village had a functioning train station and railway tracks that connected Kostki to various towns, including Małkinia, Siedlce, Kosów, Ostrołęka, and Treblinka. These trains facilitated both travel and trade, allowing residents to shop in nearby towns such as Sokołów and Kosów. Although no Jewish community lived in Kostki itself, there was a Jewish presence in the nearby village of Skibniew.
Kostki was occupied by German forces in September 1939. During the war, the village became a site of mass killings targeting Jews who attempted to escape from deportation trains bound for Treblinka. These trains, typically consisting of 15 to 30 carriages, each approximately 30 meters long, were followed by gasoline-powered draisine carts carrying German personnel. The Germans shot anyone who tried to flee.
Local witnesses interviewed by Yahad described the killings of those who jumped from the trains. Only small individuals and children could fit through the narrow windows, and even then, their chances of survival were slim. In one account, a Jewish girl, around three years old, was seen sitting on the tracks, crying for her mother, who had been shot after fleeing the train. The child was later shot in the head. Another account recounted an eight-year-old boy who was thrown from a train window and subsequently shot by a German guard. In one instance, a mother threw her child out of the window in an attempt to save her. The child fell and broke her spine, while the mother, who jumped after, was shot by the Germans on the draisine. The child, initially left alive, was later killed by another group of German personnel.
The bodies of the victims were collected by railway workers and buried near the tracks. A mass grave, referred to locally as "Kolejowy," was located beneath the railway tracks. The grave was large enough to hold six bodies laid side by side and two in width, with women buried beneath the men. According to local witnesses, approximately 300 bodies were interred in this grave, which remains unmarked by any monument.
Despite these dire circumstances, a few Jews who jumped from the trains managed to survive the war. One such survivor was a 12-year-old boy who later immigrated to Israel after liberation. Others sought refuge in the nearby forest, but many were eventually discovered and killed.
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