1 Killing site(s)
Franciszek G., born in 1925: "The camp’s barracks were enclosed by barbed wire, with a single watchtower where a guard was stationed. I believe there was only one entrance. The German guards lived in a nearby house. Jews were brought to the camp by truck, likely from Głowaczów and Jedlińsk. During the camp’s liquidation, I witnessed them being led out in groups of ten. From an abandoned house, I watched everything through a window. They were brought out in groups of ten, shot with a machine gun, and their bodies were thrown into a pit in the forest." (Testimony N°YIU690P, interviewed in Wolska Dąbrowa, on June 9, 2017)
Wolska Dąbrowa, a village in the Mazovian Voivodeship, is part of Radom County within the Gmina Jastrzębia. It is located approximately 25 km (16 mi) from Radom and about 100 km (62 mi) south of Warsaw. Historically, the village was predominantly inhabited by Polish Catholic residents, with no record of a Jewish settlement prior to the Second World War. In contrast, a thriving Jewish community resided in the town of Jedlińsk, approximately 9 km (5.6 mi) to the southwest.
Wolska Dąbrowa was occupied by German forces in September 1939, along with the rest of Masovia. The village itself did not have a police station; law enforcement for the area was based in Jedlińsk, while the German Gendarmerie maintained a post in nearby Kruszyn.
In the summer of 1940, the decision was made to establish a Wehrmacht training camp in Kruszyn, with construction beginning after September 15, 1940. To support the development of the site, the Germans relied on forced labor from nearby camps, including one established in Wolska Dąbrowa in 1942.
The labor camp in Wolska Dąbrowa initially housed Soviet POWs, who were forced to work on road construction. In December 1942, after the liquidation of the Jedlińsk ghetto, a labor camp for Jews and Poles was set up on the same site. Approximately 400 Jews were brought to the camp, including people transferred from Jedlińsk and Głowaczów. The camp was enclosed by a barbed wire fence and featured a watchtower in one corner. According to witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, the camp contained between 5 and 18 buildings, including barracks, converted Polish houses, and barns. The six to eight guards resided in a house within the village.
The camp held only Jewish men and women, with no children among the prisoners, as noted by a Yahad witness. Some local residents occasionally interacted with the inmates, bartering food for money.
The Wolska Dąbrowa labor camp was liquidated on August 15, 1943, when its remaining 180 Jewish prisoners were murdered. The Aktion was carried out by gendarmes from Kruszyn and Wehrmacht soldiers. The Jewish prisoners were led out of the camp through the main entrance and taken to a forest east of Wolska Dąbrowa, where they were executed in groups and buried in a 40-meter-long pit, which had been dug in advance by the prisoners themselves. Those who attempted to escape were shot by a machine gun positioned on the road near the killing site.
Following the Aktion, the labor camp ceased operations. The remaining Jewish prisoners were deported to an unknown location. A memorial commemorating the victims was erected in November 2016.
For additional information about the fate of Jews in Jedlińsk, please refer to the corresponding profile.
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