Siedliska | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Emilia S., born in 1931: “Someone denounced the four Jews. They were shot on the spot, along with Baranek family. I saw them dragging the bodies from the house.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum Emilia S., born in 1931: “The Germans ordered the villagers to find the hidden grandmother, or every tenth villager would die, so they did. The Baranek family was buried at the cemetery in Miechow.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum Emilia S., born in 1931: “The four Jewish men were buried behind the barn where they had been hiding. Local villagers planted trees at the burial site to commemorate them, and their bodies remain there to this day.” ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum The Yahad team in Siedliska with Zygmunt Ż., a descendant of the Baranek family. Standing before the barn where the victims hid. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum The hiding place of the Gottfried family, a father and his three sons, who stayed hidden with Baranek family for several months during the German occupation. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum The site in the field where the four Jewish men from the Gottfried family from Miechów were buried on March 15, 1943. There is no memorial to commemorate the victims. ©Piotr Malec/Yahad – In Unum

Destruction of Jews from Miechów in Siedliska

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
4

Witness interview

Emilia S., born in 1931: "My parents were farmers. There were three children in our family, and we lived in Siedliska, close to Miechów. I remember the day of the shooting of the Jews and their rescuers. Four Jews were hidden with the Baranek family in Siedliska. They were denounced. I saw them being shot and their corpses being dragged out of the Baranek house. The entire Baranek family was shot as well—two adults and two children. The grandmother managed to hide at first, but the Germans ordered the villagers to look for her. They told us that if she was not found, every ten inhabitants of the village would be shot. The villagers found the grandmother, and she was shot as well." (Witness N°1223P, interviewed in Wielka Wieś, on December 16, 2020)

Historical note

Siedliska is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Miechów, within Miechów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Available sources do not mention the presence of Jewish residents in the village prior to the Second World War. It is known, however, that a significant Jewish community lived in nearby Miechów, a town located approximately 3 km from Siedliska, which in 1937 numbered 2,298 people. The Jewish community of Miechów had at its disposal a brick synagogue, a walled cemetery covering 0.82 ha, a residential house adjacent to the synagogue, and a mikvah.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Siedliska, alongside Miechów and the territory of the present-day municipality, was occupied by German troops on September 6, 1939. A systematic extermination campaign in the Miechów district began in February 1940. Throughout 1941, measures against the local Jewish community intensified, leading to the establishment of a semi-open ghetto in April 1941. The final liquidation of the Miechów ghetto occurred in November 1942, when the remaining Jewish population was either killed on site or deported to the Bełżec killing center.

As repressions escalated throughout the various stages of ghettoization, many Jews sought hiding places to avoid deportation. Numerous individuals attempted to find refuge in nearby villages, often relying on the assistance of Christian acquaintances. Among those seeking safety were five Jewish tailors, the Gottfried brothers from Miechów and their father, who were taken in by Wincenty and Łucja Baranek in Siedliska. The Gottfried family was sheltered by the Baranek family for several months. They were concealed within a structural space situated between the residential house and the farm outbuildings in Siedliska.

Their concealment was discovered following a denunciation provided to the Germans by a member of the Blue Police from Miechów. Based on this information, German forces surrounded the Baranek farm on March 15, 1943. The subsequent search of the property uncovered four men from the Gottfried family; a fifth member avoided immediate capture, as he was away from the house during the raid.

Following the discovery, German forces shot the four Jewish men and members of the Baranek family. The victims included the father and three sons of the Gottfried family, along with Wincenty Baranek, his wife Łucja, and their two sons, twelve-year-old Henryk and ten-year-old Tadeusz.

Wincenty’s foster mother, Katarzyna Baranek-Kopeć, initially survived by hiding. However, she was killed the following day after being surrendered to the authorities under the threat of a mass shooting of the village residents.

Following the executions, German authorities ordered the Jewish victims to be buried in a pit near the barn. The Baranek family was permitted burial in the Miechów parish cemetery, provided that no funeral ceremonies were held.

In 2012, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Wincenty and Łucja Baranek as Righteous Among the Nations for their sacrifice.

To this day, the burial site of the four men from the Gottfried family remains unmarked.

For more information about the killing of Jews in Miechów, please follow the corresponding profile.

 

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