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5 Killing site(s)
Czeslawa Z., born in 1926: "If you only knew how many Jews were shot near the communal office, which was the headquarters of the German gendarmerie during the occupation. A Jewish father, mother, and their children were executed there, and I will never forget the children’s screams as they were dragged by a German to be shot next to their parents. I saw it—our house was only 50 meters from the communal building. [...] The shootings started in 1941 and went on for three years. [...] Jews were brought there in various ways, sometimes on foot, other times by carts, and sometimes they were captured in neighboring villages. I remember one instance when a group of Jews, including young Jewish women, was taken by cart to the village of Wierzchowiny. The women tried to save themselves, offering to cook and do housework for the Germans or Ukrainians, but it was no use. The Germans didn’t listen. They took them away and shot them all; a pit had already been dug." [Testimony N°YIU45P, interviewed in Janówka , on July 17, 2011]
“At the time of the occupation, I lived in Janówka, Chelm district. In 1941-1942, in our village, several executions were carried out on Jews caught in the surrounding area. These Jews were brought by Ukrainian Selbstschutz, who were stationed in the commune. There were 5-6 of them in the village. Jews were also brought in by German gendarmes, following roundups. These gendarmes lived in the village; there were about 8-10 of them. I don’t know their names or which brigade they belonged to. I’ve heard it said that they were SS. After being taken to the village, the Jews were held there for some time before being shot. The gendarmes stationed in the area carried out the executions. I witnessed two executions, but I can’t date them. I saw the two executions from Julian Julian Lukowiec’s shop, which was opposite the communal office. In the first execution four Jews were shot. They were the owners of the Horodysko mill, a married couple with 2 children aged about 11-12, a girl and a boy. They were taken out of the communal office one by one. The gendarme took the woman out first. He took her 40-50 metres away, to the sand quarry, and shot her, I think with a pistol, in the back of the head. Then he took the man out and shot him in the same way, followed by the boy and the girl". [Deposition of Jan Kowalski, resident of Janówka, compiled on November 23, 1967; DS 320/67 document 7-7rev]
Janówka is a village in eastern Poland, located in the Lublin Voivodeship, about 19 km from the county capital, Chełm. Before the war, Janówka was closely connected with the neighboring village of Leśniowice. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, there were no Jewish residents in Janówka, which was primarily inhabited by Poles and Ukrainians.
In September 1939, following a brief occupation by the Soviet army, Janówka was taken over by German troops. The commune headquarters, located on the border between Janówka and the neighboring village of Leśniowice, was transformed into a German gendarmerie, where a dozen men were stationed. According to Polish archives and local witnesses, both a Polish police unit (Granatowa Police) and a Ukrainian auxiliary unit (Selbstschutz) were also established in the village.
From 1941 onward, Janówka became a site of executions for Jews hiding in the surrounding area. The local gendarmes, along with Ukrainian auxiliaries, organized roundups to capture these Jews. Those caught were either shot on the spot or taken to the nearby sand quarry, where approximately 50 Jews were executed and buried between 1941 and 1943. In a few cases, arrested Jews were transported to the nearby village of Wierzchowiny. According to sources, 13 Jews—men, women, and children—were executed in Janówka in the autumn of 1941 while being transported to Wierzchowiny.
In addition to locating the mass grave in the sand quarry, Yahad was able to identify four other sites where the bodies of Jews, murdered in isolated shootings in Janówka, were buried. Local inhabitants were often requisitioned to bury the bodies of Jews who had been shot.
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