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1 Killing site(s)
Wacław S., born in 1920: "Right after the Germans arrived in 1941, Jews were no longer allowed to conduct trade or business. The Germans forced Jewish men to perform hard labor, such as clearing rubble from the town hall using wheelbarrows and hauling it to the river. The workers were required to wear distinguishing marks on their chests and were kept under constant German guard. One day, the Germans also forced the Jews to dismantle the statue of Lenin. The ghetto was set up next to the Jewish cemetery, and enclosed by barbed wire. My family lived right on the border of the ghetto, just across the street from it. While the ghetto existed, we could constantly hear gunshots from shootings inside. The people who were killed in there were buried in the Jewish cemetery. Due to its location, many Jews managed to escape from the ghetto at night. Some even returned later to retrieve their belongings. However, they could not stay hidden for long because Polish partisans chased them away. On the day of the ghetto liquidation, we could hear the Jews screaming. They were loaded onto trucks, driven to the railway station, and deported to Treblinka. Around that time, a Jewish woman named Levin hid in the woodshed belonging to my father. The following day, I told her she had to leave, as it was far too dangerous for Poles to hide Jews, so she left." (Witness N°YIU584P, interviewed in Siemiatycze, on June 15, 2016)
Questionnaire on mass executions and mass graves.
1. Date and place of the execution: from November 1942 until the day of the departure of the Germans; liquidation of the Siemiatycze ghetto;
2. Type of execution / shooting, hanging, or other types: shooting;
3. Data concerning the executed victims:
Poles, Jews, foreigners: Jews
Number of persons executed: approximately 200
Origin of the victims: local Jews
Name, age, profession, and address: unknown
4. Is it known what the victims were accused of, or was the execution an act of reprisal or other: illegible;
5. Who carried out the execution? The Gendarmerie, the Gestapo, the SS, the police, the Wehrmacht? The Gestapo and the police;
6. Are the names of the perpetrators of the crimes known? Give names: Commander Ghadda Rudy and the deputy commissioner of police in Siemiatycze;
7. Were the bodies burned? Or destroyed in another way? In what location? The bodies were buried;
8. Where were the corpses buried? Exact location: Siemiatycze, "Mogiłki" wilderness area (uroczysko);
9. Description of the grave/graves / dimensions, probable number of victims per grave: 200 victims in a mass grave measuring 15m x 1.5m;
10. Has an exhumation of the bodies been carried out? Was there a protocol prepared at the site of the grave? No;
11. Are there reasons to request a near-future exhumation? No.
[Court Inquiries about Executions, Mass Graves, Camps, and Ghettos; (Ankieta Sądów Grodzkich); RG-15.019M Reel #1; (p. 272-271 on the PDF); Location: Town of Siemiatycze, Bielsk Podlaski county (currently: Siemiatycze county), Białystok voivodeship. Deposition of Kochański Michał, 48 years old, resident of the town of Siemiatycze (17a Wesoła Street), profession unknown, dated September 29, 1945. He bases his testimony on his own observations as well as those of the residents of the commune.]
Siemiatycze is a town in eastern Poland, and the capital of Siemiatycze County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The town is located approximately 91 km (56.5 mi) south of Białystok, the capital of the region, and about 147 km (91.3 mi) east of Warsaw.
The presence of Jewish settlement in Siemiatycze dates back to the late 16th century, with the first official record recorded in 1582. Although autonomous kehilla structures began forming toward the end of the 17th century, the Jewish community of Siemiatycze fell under the administration of the Tykocin community until the mid-18th century. A pivotal moment occurred in 1775 with the construction of a brick synagogue, around which—together with the nearby market square—local life concentrated. Over time, the religious and educational infrastructure expanded to include two additional prayer houses, a cemetery, and a Talmudic House erected at the turn of the century.
The local Jewish population earned its livelihood through craftsmanship, manufacturing, and trade, including a substantial grain trade extending to major commercial centers such as Frankfurt and Leipzig. From the 1860s onward, the textile industry became an important economic sector. By the late 19th century, Jews constituted three-quarters of the city’s population and played a key role in its economic development. Following the events of 1905, various Jewish social organizations and political parties flourished in the town. During the interwar period, the high quality of local clay was discovered, leading to the creation of tile factories. Out of the six tile plants operating in the 1930s—a sector pioneered by Hersz Belkes—five belonged to Jewish entrepreneurs. Siemiatycze’s pre-war 1939 population of 8,138 included 4,303 Jews.
Following a brief German occupation in September 1939, Siemiatycze was handed over to Soviet control. During the Soviet period, the town’s Jewish population initially swelled to between 7,000 and 8,000 owing to an influx of refugees; however, numerous individuals were subsequently relocated or deported to Siberia.
Upon the launch of Operation Barbarossa, German forces reoccupied the town and established an open ghetto enforced by strict movement restrictions, mandatory yellow identifiers and curfews. The new occupation brought a wave of antisemitic violence by German troops and local collaborators, marked by beatings, public humiliations, such as the forced demolition of a Lenin monument, and isolated killings. This included the shooting of up to 23 Jews suspected of loyalty to the Soviet regime. By late summer 1941, the open ghetto was expanded to absorb relocated Jewish populations from nearby communities, including Mielnik and Makarki. Local Jews were routinely conscripted for forced labor, clearing war rubble and repairing damaged railway tracks. In May 1942, a group of 50 Jewish men taken for a Białystok-to-Minsk road construction project never returned.
Tensions escalated when Kreiskommissar Landrat Tubenthal ordered the creation of enclosed ghettos across the entire Kreis, leading to the establishment of the closed Siemiatycze Ghetto on August 1, 1942. The ghetto quickly became severely overcrowded, housing between 5,000 and 6,000 detainees. Severe living conditions, marked by starvation and a complete lack of medical care, resulted in a high mortality rate of approximately ten deaths per day. According to Wacław S., born in 1920, who lived directly across from the site, the ghetto perimeter was enclosed with barbed wire running right along his street. He recalled that during its existence, residents constantly heard gunshots, and the victims were buried in the local Jewish cemetery. Violence peaked during Rosh Hashanah on September 12, 1942, when German forces and Polish auxiliaries raided the ghetto, assaulting and murdering residents.
During the ghetto liquidation, which began on November 2, 1942, between 300 and 500 Jews attempted to escape through a hole in the fence. However, 200 of them, including the Judenrat leader Rozencwajg, were killed. The victims were buried in a mass pit in the Mogiłki ravine, a forested area on the outskirts of Siemiatycze directly adjoining the western perimeter of the Jewish cemetery on Polna Street. The remaining ghetto residents, approximately 5,650 people, were deported to the Treblinka killing center between November 4 and 10, with an additional 50 to 70 residents murdered during the roundup and transport.
Witnesses interviewed by Yahad recalled that following the liquidation of the ghetto, German authorities organized an auction of Jewish belongings inside a school building under the supervision of an official. Local residents were brought in to sort through the property, including clothing and heavy quilts, and during the process, several individuals took the opportunity to claim items for themselves.
After the deportation, over 40 ghetto escapees were sheltered by local Polish families, while Herz Szabbes organized a self-defense group that managed to save 70 people. However, dozens of other fugitives were killed following betrayals and armed attacks. Ultimately, post-war violence and general insecurity prevented the returning survivors from permanently re-establishing the historic Jewish community.
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