Narewka | Podlaskie Voivodeship

Narewka’s Wooden Synagogue, which was located on Szkolna Street, drawn by Jarosław Wojtach. ©Photo archive taken from Jewishgen.org The former location of the fire station in Narewka, where local Jews were assembled before being shot or deported. The building no longer exists today. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Leokadia D., born in 1927: “The Germans came with a list, gathering all the Jewish men. They marched them into the forest and killed them. I heard the shots from home… They are buried there”. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Leokadia D., born in 1927: “The women and children were locked in a fire station building. My neighbor took them some bread. The Germans later took them away, and I never saw them again”. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Leokadia D., born in 1927: “A few days after the shooting, Jewish clothes and belongings were gathered in a post office room and sold to the locals”. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Mikołaj S., born in 1933: “They were our neighbors, the Jewish families who ran the shops and worked as artisans. We all went to the same school together, though they also had their own". ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Mikołaj S., born in 1933: “The day of the shooting, the Germans went from house to house with a list. We watched as they forced the Jewish families out, their hands behind their heads”. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Mikołaj S., born in 1933: “They were all gathered at the fire station. The Germans carried out a selection there: the men were taken to the forest to be shot, and the women and children were put on trucks and driven away.” ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum Mikołaj S., born in 1933: “On the day they were rounded up, the Jewish adult men were shot near the Catholic cemetery and buried in a mass grave they’d probably dug themselves.” ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum The killing and burial site of Jewish men from Narewka shot by the Germans in August 1941 in the forest between Zabłotyczna and Narewka. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum The monument bears the following inscription: “Mass grave of 500 Jewish people murdered by the Nazi occupiers on August 5, 1941. Honour to their memory”. ©Markel Redondo/Yahad - In Unum

Destruction of Jews in Narewka

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Forest
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
Between 282 and 500

Witness interview

Leokadia D., born in 1927: "In Narewka, before the war, Poles, Belarusians, and Jews lived side by side. The Jews were mainly engaged in trade and crafts; they were exceptionally skilled in these professions. They worked as merchants, shoemakers, and tailors. I remember Hana Kusowicka, who had a bakery and baked bread, and a Jew named Kagan, who had some kind of business in the forest—I don’t know exactly what it was. Before the war, children of all faiths, including Jews, attended the same school in Narewka. The village also had a wooden synagogue, which was attended mainly by men, but the Germans burned it down during the occupation.

During the war, the Germans came here and killed all the Jewish men. They arrived in the village early in the morning, carrying a list of all the Jewish households. Sometimes I think someone must have given them that list, because how else would they have known so precisely where the Jews lived? They went from house to house, leading the Jews out. First, they gathered them somewhere near the church. Once everyone had been assembled, they were led to the forest and killed not far from the Catholic cemetery. I was at home and heard the gunshots. The Jewish men are buried in that forest.

As for the women and children, they were locked in the fire station building. After some time, the Germans took them away from Narewka. How do I know this? A neighbor who brought bread to that shed for the Jewish women told me about it.” (Witness N°YIU332P, interviewed in Narewka, on May 19, 2014)

Historical note

Narewka is a village in eastern Poland, located in Gmina Narewka, Hajnówka County, within Podlaskie Voivodeship. Jews began settling in Narewka in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and their population quickly grew to become a significant part of the town. Throughout the 19th century, their numbers steadily increased, eventually making up as much as 90 percent of the total population.

The Jewish community primarily lived in the area surrounding the town marketplace. They earned their livelihoods mainly through small-scale commerce — owning shops or working as peddlers — and various manual trades. Some Jews also found employment in the local glass and bottle factory or in a turpentine production plant, though many struggled with unemployment.

Narewka’s Jews maintained their own cemetery, located about 1 kmfrom the town, and a wooden synagogue, which was burned down during the Second World War.

According to the 1921 census, the village had a population of 1,205 residents, of whom 758 were Jewish, underscoring the community’s continued and significant presence in Narewka on the eve of the war.

 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Narewka came under Soviet occupation on September 17, 1939. After the launch of the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Soviets withdrew, and by June 23 Narewka was under German control.

On August 15 (or possibly August 14), 1941, the Jewish residents of Narewka were taken from their homes and confined in the local fire station, where a selection took place. A total of 282 Jewish men, aged 16 to 65, were separated from the women and children and taken to a nearby forest near the village of Zabłotyczna, where they were shot by the 3rd Company of Police Battalion 322. Leokadia D., born in 1927 and interviewed by Yahad in 2014, witnessed the roundup of the Jewish population by the Germans before the Aktion. Both she and another local witness recalled that the Germans had a detailed list of all Jewish households in Narewka. Leokadia vividly remembered hearing the gunfire from the forest.

After the shooting, the remaining Jews of Narewka — 259 women and 162 children — were taken from the fire station to Kobryń (located in modern Belarus), where a ghetto was established in November 1941. In the following months, they perished there, sharing the fate of the other Jews confined in the ghetto.

After the destruction of Narewka’s Jewish community, their belongings were gathered in a room of the local post office and sold to residents. The empty Jewish houses were first boarded up by the Germans before being occupied by refugees from nearby villages.

Today, the killing site of the Jewish men from Narewka, located in the forest, is marked by a memorial. According to the monument’s inscription, the mass grave holds 500 Jews murdered by the Germans on August 5, 1941. However, this date (August 5) and the number of victims (500) differ from other historical sources, which record the massacre as taking place on August 14–15, 1941, with 282 men killed.

For more information about the killing of Jews in Kobryń (Kobryn), Belarus, please refer to the corresponding profile.

 

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