Stężyca | Lublin

Killing of Jews in Stężyca

3 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:

Courtyard of a house (1); Forest (2,3)

Memorials:

No

Period of occupation:

1939-1944

Number of victims:

At least 5

Witnesses interviewed:

3

Witness interview

Kazimierz W., born in 1925:"I witnessed the shooting of two Jewish men behind our barn. They had been arrested and detained at the fire station before being brought there. Two Germans shot them with pistols. One of the victims was Mosiek’s brother, and Mosiek saw the execution. I remember that a friend of mine took a watch from the hand of one of the victims. Then, the sołtys called a man with a cart to remove the bodies. They were buried in the same place where the bodies of executed Poles had been laid to rest—behind the village, in the woods.” [Testimony N°YIU897P, interviewed in Stężyca, on August 16, 2018]

Polish Archives

"On 7 May 1942, SS men from Dęblin arrived in the settlement [Stężyca] and ordered all the Jews to report to the gmina office. My brother Kuba, my cousin, and I were at home that day. When we heard what was happening in the street, we didn’t go to the gathering point. Instead, we fled into the nearby woods. […] There were German guards stationed there. Unaware of their presence, we stumbled upon them. As we approached, they shone their flashlights on us and opened fire. Fortunately, a small forest was nearby. We ran into it, and although the Germans fired at us, they missed in the darkness of the night. […] I left the farmer, who could no longer shelter me, and went into a nearby forest, where I remained for a month. At night, I sneaked into a village to get food, and during the day, I stayed alone in the forest. That’s how I wandered—sick and heartbroken.” [Testimony of the Jewish survivor Mosze Zylberszpan, born in 1903, compiled on February 14, 1949, in Lodz; AZIH 301/4137]

Historical note

Stężyca is a village in Ryki County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 28 km (17 miles) west of Ryki and 81 km (50 miles) northwest of the regional capital, Lublin.

The earliest record of Jewish presence in Stężyca dates back to the early 16th century, when historical sources mention two Jews from Kraków working as tax collectors in the village. Although Jewish settlement and economic activity were officially prohibited at the time, it appears that some Jews remained despite the ban. After the restriction was lifted following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Jews were allowed to settle freely, though they remained a small community, making their living as small businessmen and craftsmen.

Stężyca was home to a study house and a kosher butcher shop, while the Jewish cemetery was located in the nearby town of Dęblin, which had a thriving Jewish community. During the First World War, economic life came to a standstill, leading to shortages that deeply affected the Jewish population. According to the 1921 census, 125 Jews lived in Stężyca, making up nearly 10% of the total population of 1,530. Economic hardship persisted throughout the interwar period, particularly due to an economic boycott imposed on Jews by anti-Semitic groups in the 1930s.

On the eve of the Second World War, approximately 30 Jewish families lived in Stężyca. Religious and close-knit, they were primarily concentrated on Królewska Street, near a prayer house. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, members of the Jewish community included Lejbka, a hairdresser; Mojżesz, a cobbler; and Szmul, Mosiek, and Pejsak, who were tailors. The parents of Rojza Abramek ran a bakery. Other Jewish residents included Srulik, Gasiorek, Mendel, and Jankiel, while Berek and Pinkos were Jewish classmates of a local witness.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Stężyca was occupied by Wehrmacht units in mid-September 1939. Soon after, anti-Jewish measures were implemented: trade was forbidden, and Jewish shops were looted. At the end of 1939, a three-member Judenrat was established, tasked primarily with providing 60 Jewish forced laborers for the German administration. These laborers worked in the German military hospital and were assigned to road and railroad repairs. In early 1940, Jews were required to wear distinctive badges bearing the Star of David. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, several Jews were deported to a labor camp in the nearby town of Dęblin.

In 1941–1942, an open ghetto was established around Królewska Street. On May 7, 1942, during the ghetto’s liquidation, local Jews were transported to Dęblin by cart. The Aktion was carried out by SS men and gendarmes from Dęblin. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, a disabled Jewish woman and a young Jewish man were shot in Stężyca during the deportation. At the same time, 15 young Jews managed to escape and hide in the nearby forest. Firemen were subsequently deployed to search for the fugitives. From Dęblin, most of the Jewish deportees, along with local Jews, were sent to the Sobibor extermination camp. A group of Jewish workers, however, was kept in Dęblin-Irena for forced labor.

A few weeks later, 40 Jews and their families—60 people in total, including Judenrat members—were brought back from Dęblin to Stężyca to integrate into a newly established labor camp, where they worked in construction and road repairs. Before the camp’s liquidation on October 29, 1942, about 20 Jews managed to flee into the nearby forest, while the remaining 40 were transferred back to the labor camp in Dęblin.

From April to June 1943, another labor camp was established in Stężyca, housing up to 200 Jews who were forced to work on the construction of the Pawłowice road. According to historical sources, German forces conducted executions of camp inmates. The fate of the Jews during the camp’s liquidation in June 1943 remains poorly documented, but local witnesses report that the camp workers were transported to Kurów.

Isolated killings of Jews occurred throughout the German occupation in the vicinity of Stężyca. One local witness recalled that two Jewish men were taken by truck to a nearby forest, where they were shot by the Germans and buried on the spot. Another witness described how two Jewish men were executed by two gendarmes behind the witness’s family barn during the summer. Their bodies were then transported to the nearby forest and buried in the same area where 16 Poles had been executed in August 1943. While the Polish victims were later exhumed by their families and commemorated with a monument, there is no known memorial for the Jewish victims buried in the same area.

In addition to Jewish and Polish victims, several Soviet prisoners of war were executed and buried in the Stężyca cemetery during the war.

Jewishgen

Nearby villages

• Ryki
• Kurów

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