Ćmielów (Cmielow) | Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship

/ Corner of Długa and Opatowska. Back then the building served as a camp where the remaining Jews were confined and was created in January 1943. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum The house where a Jewish woman, in her 80s named Graca, was murdered by Germans. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Train station from which Jews were deported to the death camp of Treblinka. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Gathering place where Jews from Klementow had to stay for one night. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Spot where the Jewish family was killed. The administration house was located next to the site. The family was hiding in this house of Poles. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Place where the synagogue and the house of the rabbi used to be located. Today, it is an empty square surrounded by houses. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Antoni W., born in 1930, saw a Jewish family being killed behind the administration building. The shooting happened after the deportation of Jews. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum According to Irena G. this is an execution site of one Roma who tried to escape, but was shot and buried © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Mass grave of a Roma family, located next to Sandomierska 83. They were executed by Germans after the deportation of Jews. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Execution site of about 16 Roma, located in the Baltowski forest. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Janina W., born in 1934, saw when Germans shot the Roma family who was running away from the village. They were shot in the Baltowski forest. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Irena G., born in 1956, didn’t see the execution of the Roma family. However, her aunt was requisitioned to dig a pit and bury them. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum Yahad’s team on the way towards the execution site. © Piotr Malec – Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews and Roma in Ćmielów

1 Sitio(s) de ejecución

Tipo de lugar antes:
Empty spot (1), Orchard (2), Baltowski street (3)
Memoriales:
No
Período de ocupación:
1939-1944
Número de víctimas:
Over two dozens

Entrevista del testigo

Antoni W., born in 1930: “There was a family of Gypsies. [They] weren’t native [or] from Ćmielów but from somewhere else. They were shot and buried in the garden behind the gmina [village hall]. They were found after the deportation of the Jews. I saw the execution of the Gypsies, but I don’t remember how many . I didn’t expect they would be killed. I don’t know who buried the corpses, and I didn’t go there to see. I think they are still buried there, because no one exhumed them. They stayed about one or two months.” (Witness n°1048, interviewed in Ćmielów on June, 6th 2019).

Archivos polacos

“1/ Date and place of execution: Second half of November 1943 in Ćmielów.

2/ Type of execution: shooting

3/ Data concerning the killed people:

Poles, Jews, foreigners: Jews

How many: 2

Where were the victims from: locals.

Name, age, job: Gutman Maria, 65 years old, peddler, Aksinkiew Kazimierz, 45 years old, retired person.

4/ Why were they killed: Because they were Jews.” [Questionnaire on mass executions and mass graves n°369 (Miejscowosc: Cmielow; Gmina: Cmielow; Powiat: Opatow; Wojewodztwo: Kieleckie); RG.15.019M]

Nota histórica

The first records about the Jewish community in Ćmielów go back to the early 18th century. The community increased over the years. By 1827, 147 Jews lived in the town. According to the census in 1921, 664 Jews lived in the town making up 27% of the total population. The majority of Jews were traders or craftsmen. They had their own synagogue, built in the 1860s. There was a mikveh [ritual bath] as well. On the eve of WWII, about 500 Jews lived in Ćmielów.

Holocausto por balas en cifras

Ćmielów was occupied by Germans in September 1939. Immediately after the occupation, the anti-Jewish measures were implemented. The Ćmielów Jews were subjected to pay contributions, weren’t allowed to walk on the pavement ,and couldn’t buy many kinds of products. Their shops and properties were taken over by Germans. With the arrival of the refugees on May 1, 1940, about 1,000 Jews lived in Ćmielów. Several hundred Jews fit to work were subjected to forced labor at the road construction, porcelain factory, and quarry. The Jews continued to live freely until the creation of the ghetto in June 1942. The ghetto was fenced in and included between 900 to 1,500 inmates, including refugees from Vienna, Konin, Golin and Warta. Due to bad living conditions, a typhus epidemic broke out, and many Jews died. The ghetto was liquidated in October 1942. According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, a group of Jews from Klemontow were brought to Cmielow on the eve of the deportation. After having spent the night under the sky in a park, they were deported along with the local Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. About 24 Jews were killed and buried at the Jewish cemetery. Isolated shootings took place during the couple of weeks following the liquidation. Any Jews who were found hiding, were shot dead on the spot. This was the case of the Jews found hiding in the near village of Jastków. According to the field research, besides the Jews, about two dozens of Roma were killed in Ćmielów. The Roma were not native to the town. Those who were not found out immediately, but after a certain time, were confined into a camp created in January 1943 in Ćmielów. The camp inmates were eventually deported to the Treblinka camp some time later.

 For more information about the Jews killed in Jastków, please refer to the following profile

 

Pueblos cercanos

  • Jastków
  • Kunów
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