1 Killing site(s)
Genowefa B., born in 1935: "A Jewish house once stood in the center of the village. The Jews were very religious and well-educated. After they were no longer here, Polish residents dismantled the house, searching for valuables—but they found nothing. There was also a Jewish-owned field and a mill. I don’t know how, but after the war, a neighbor became their owner. […] Some Jews hid in the forest. One day, while picking blueberries, I stumbled upon a small mound covered in branches and vegetation, with a tiny doorway. Jews were living there, receiving food from a neighbor. It was said that he made a fortune assisting them." [Testimony N°YIU1447P, interviewed in Oszczepalin Drugi on August 11, 2023]
"In April 1943 in Oszczepalin Drugi, seven local Jews, including members of the Kurland family, were executed. Their bodies were buried by the roadside." [Minutes of the Court Municipal in Kock, dated October 8, 1945; IPN 337 E 1042]
"October 27, 1942: A Jewish family living in Oszczepalin Pierwszy, Wojcieszków municipality, was taken into the forest and shot." [Stanislaw Zeminski, Report 302/30, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute – ŻIH]
Oszczepalin is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wojcieszków, within Łuków County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 19 km south of Łuków and 57 km north of the regional capital, Lublin. The village is divided into two distinct parts: Oszczepalin Pierwszy (First Oszczepalin) and Oszczepalin Drugi (Second Oszczepalin).
According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, a Jewish family lived in the village before the war. Their house was located in the center of the village. There was also a field and a mill owned by Jews. A Jewish man named Josek, a skilled tailor, was well respected both in the town and the surrounding area. The synagogue and Jewish cemetery were located in Adamów, a town 12 km to the west.
with the entire Łuków district, was initially occupied by the Wehrmacht. At the end of September 1939, control was handed over to the Soviet army, which withdrew in early October, leaving the area under German control in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
According to a Yahad - In Unum witness, there were no gendarmes stationed in Oszczepalin Drugi. However, a Polish Blue Police (Granatowa police) unit and an arrest house were established in nearby Wojcieszków. The same witness confirmed that three Jews, including a woman, were killed in Oszczepalin Drugi near a sandy area known as ’Biała Góra,’ located at the village boundary, during the fall.
Polish archives document the murder of a local Jewish family in Oszczepalin in October 1942, during the final phase of the deportations organized by the German administration in the Łuków district. Historical sources on post-war exhumations in the Łuków district report that the head of the village of Oszczepalin declared that, between 1942 and 1943, 14 Jews were murdered in Oszczepalin Pierwszy and 15 in Oszczepalin Drugi.
According to the Yahad witness, the victims were exhumed after the war. During its investigation in Oszczepalin Drugi, the Yahad team was able to locate the mass grave near ’Biała Góra’.
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