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1 Killing site(s)
Józef K., born in 1924: “One day, I heard gunshots. Later, I learned that two young Jews had been hiding in a farmhouse outside Rossosz. They had probably been denounced. The gendarmes arrived, found them, and killed them by the roadside, leaving their bodies there. People passed by and looked at them lying on the ground. I took my bicycle and went to see them too. At that time, Jews were still in the village, and they retrieved the bodies and buried them in the Jewish cemetery.” [Testimony N°YIU910P, interviewed in Rossosz, on August 22, 2018]
"In September 1942, in Rossosz, the gendarmes killed 5 Jews, including Moszko Gimelfarb (Gimerfarb) and his son Szulim. The victims’ bodies were buried at the killing site in a common grave.
In November 1942, in Rossosze, 16 Jews were killed at a place called czerwcowe uroczysko. The victims’ bodies were buried at the killing site in a common grave." [Protocol of the Municipal Court in in Biała Podlaska, dated September 28, 1945; IPN, 337 E 1091, 337, E 1092]
Rossosz is a town located 64 km (40 miles) northwest of Lublin in eastern Poland. A small Jewish community had existed there since at least the first quarter of the 17th century. During the 19th century, the Jewish population grew from 122 residents in 1827 to 279 in 1857, making up 16.7% of the total population. By the late 19th century, Jewish residents had established a mill and a sawmill, contributing to the local economy.
After Poland regained independence, Rossosz remained a small settlement with about 1,300 inhabitants, including approximately 300 Jews. In 1921, a wooden synagogue was built, and by 1928, the town had a mikveh and a ritual slaughterhouse. Around the same time, an interest-free loan fund was created to support the local Jewish community, and political organizations such as the Zionist movement and the Orthodox Agudah gained influence.
During the 1930s, as the economic crisis deepened, a significant number of Jews emigrated from Rossosz in search of better opportunities.
In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, the town had a Jewish population of 302, making up about 25% of the town’s total inhabitants.
In early September 1939, Rossosz was briefly occupied by the Red Army, which withdrew at the end of the month in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. During and shortly after the Soviet withdrawal on October 7, 1939, some Jews from Rossosz managed to escape to Soviet-controlled areas beyond the Bug River before the town was taken over by the Germans.
Anti-Jewish measures were immediately implemented. The Germans destroyed the Bet Midrash and burned the Torah and the aron ha-kodesh. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, in October 1939, a group of mostly elderly Jewish men were rounded up by gendarmes from Wisznice in the town center and humiliated by having their beards cut. The victims were then marched 1.5 km away to a muddy field, where they were shot. After the gendarmes left, their bodies were transported to the Jewish cemetery in Rossosz and buried. The approximate location of the burial site was identified by Yahad researchers.
In November 1939, a Judenrat (Jewish council) was established in Rossosz. By May 1941, following the resettlement of approximately 150 Jews from Kraków, the Jewish population of Rossosz increased to 466 people, living in 45 houses in what became a "Jewish quarter," effectively an unfenced ghetto. Residents were prohibited from leaving without permission. Despite widespread confiscation of Jewish property, the authorities allowed some cultivation of land within the ghetto, enabling limited food production. In December 1941, the Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) established a community kitchen, which provided meals for about 130 destitute Jews. However, overcrowding and poor sanitation led to outbreaks of typhoid fever and typhus in late 1941 and early 1942. Isolated killings were also carried out by gendarmes from Wisznice, who frequently passed through Rossosz.
Beginning in 1941, Jews from Rossosz were subjected to forced labor at nearby camps and estates. In the summer of that year, 60 young men were sent as laborers to nearby farms, while another 30 were assigned to work on water projects at camps in Romaszki and at a camp set up in the Rossosz school building. A local witness reported that several dozen Jews, including those from Międzyrzec, were housed at the school under the supervision of Ukrainian policemen and forced to work on irrigation projects along the Mulawa River. On April 23 and 25, male Jews between the ages of 15 and 60 were deported to labor camps in Małaszewicze, Kobylany, and Terespol, leaving only 10 Jewish men in Rossosz.
By this time, the Jewish community of Rossosz had been reduced to about 200 people. On June 13, 1942, most of the remaining Jews, primarily women, children, and the elderly, were marched 5 km to Łomazy by gendarmes from Wisznice and Sławatycze. After spending two months in the Łomazy ghetto, they were among the 1,500 Jews murdered in a mass shooting carried out by Reserve Police Battalion 101 in the Hały woods on August 17, 1942.
The final liquidation of the residual ghetto in Rossosz took place between September 26 and 29, 1942, when the remaining Jews were deported to the Międzyrzec ghetto. Polish archives report that five Jews from Rossosz were killed by gendarmes during this Aktion and buried in a field behind one of the victims’ houses. On October 6 and 9, 1942, the Międzyrzec ghetto was liquidated, and its inmates, including the Rossosz deportees, were marched to the railway station and sent to the Treblinka death camp.
According to Polish archives, in November 1942, 16 Jews, likely laborers from a local camp, were killed in Rossosz at a site known as “uroczysko czerwcowe,” which was also used as a burial site.
Historical sources do not mention any survivors from the Rossosz ghetto. However, according to a witness interviewed by Yahad, a Jewish man named Vigdov, a prewar oil merchant in Rossosz, survived by hiding on a local farm. He later emigrated to the United States.
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