Sieciechów | Masovian Voivodeship

Sieciechów is a village in Kozienice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately 92 km (57 mi) southeast of Warsaw.

Not much is known about the prewar Jewish community from Sieciechów. However, the town was home to a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery located several km away. Witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum recall that before the war, both Poles and Jews lived in the village, with Jewish families largely residing near the market square and working in various trades. Jewish and Polish students attended the same school. Krystyna S., born in 1935, recalled having a Jewish friend named Blimka, whose parents were traders and considered among the wealthier members of the Jewish community. She also remembered a local Jewish shoemaker who made her shoes and ultimately survived the war. However, she never learned the fate of Blimka after her friend was moved to the ghetto.

By 1939, there were 120 Jews living in the Sieciechów.

Sieciechów was occupied by German troops on September 9, 1939. Anti-Jewish measures were implemented in the town shortly thereafter, including forced labor such as cleaning military vehicles and maintaining stables. According to Yahad - In Unum witness Helena N., born in 1933, Jews were required to wear armbands bearing the Star of David even before the establishment of the ghetto. Although the precise date of the ghetto creation remains unknown, it was presumably set up in early 1942. According to Helena N., the fenced-in, German-guarded ghetto was established near the river and fields away from the town center. Although movement was strictly prohibited, residents still managed to slip out to purchase or barter for essentials.

On August 17, 1942, an order was issued to transfer all Jews from Mariampol, Magnuszew, Mniszew, and Sieciechów to the Kozienice ghetto by the end of August. During the liquidation of the Sieciechów ghetto in August 1942, approximately 300 Jewish residents were transferred to Kozienice. Shortly after, in September 1942, the Kozienice ghetto itself was liquidated, and all its inhabitants were deported to the Treblinka killing center.

A number of local Jews attempted to escape deportation by hiding in the surrounding area. According to Krystyna S., born in 1935, up to three Jewish families sought refuge in a deep, dried-up ditch located on the outskirts of the town along the road to Kozienice. They were eventually discovered by the Germans and shot on the spot. Local young men were then requisitioned to bury the victims in a pit dug over the ditch, though some victims were reportedly still alive when buried. According to Krystyna S., the bodies were later removed from the site.

Indeed, after the war, as part of the efforts conducted by the local Jewish Committee, the remains of victims found in the Sieciechów area were exhumed and transferred to the Jewish cemetery in Kozienice, which serves as the central burial site for Jews from the county. It is therefore very likely that the remains of the Jews who hid in the ditch were laid to rest there.