1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Jan S., born in 1925: “As I was returning from Kowalin in my horse-drawn cart, I came across a woman carrying a small child. Suddenly, I heard a gunshot. Startled, I turned around and saw a gendarme standing there—the Jewish woman had fallen to the ground. I know the place where she and her child were buried. It is on a small hill, not far from the road.” [Testimony N°YIU818P, interviewed in Wólka Olbięcka, on June 14, 2018]
Olbięcin is a village in Kraśnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is located 6 km (4 miles) west of Kraśnik and 48 km (30 miles) southwest of the regional capital, Lublin.
According to a local witness interviewed byYahad, three Jewish families lived in the village before the war. They were part of a larger family of three brothers. The eldest, Ankiel, had seven children, while each of his two brothers had two. While one of the brothers struggled to make a living, the other two prospered in agriculture and finance, according to the witness.
The religious center for these Jewish families was the Kraśnik synagogue, which served the surrounding villages.
On the eve of the German occupation, Jewish life in the district was primarily concentrated in Kraśnik, which had a Jewish population of approximately 4,000. In contrast, Olbięcin had only a small Jewish community of about 15 people.
After the outbreak of war, Olbięcin—along with the entire Kraśnik district—fell under Wehrmacht occupation by mid-September 1939. German units remained in the village for several weeks, establishing a military hospital during their stay. After the army’s departure, a permanent gendarmerie was set up in Olbięcin.
According to one Yahad witness, the Jews of Olbięcin were relatively spared until 1942. They were allowed to remain in their homes and continue their daily activities. However, in April 1942, the deportation of 2,500 Jews from the nearby Kraśnik ghetto to the Bełżec death camp marked one of the earliest deportation Aktions in the General Government. Alongside these mass deportations, many Jews who attempted to hide were gradually discovered and executed throughout the Kraśnik district.
A local resident interviewed by Yahad recounted witnessing the execution of a Jewish woman and her child by an Olbięcin gendarme in a meadow on a small hill along the road connecting Wólka Olbięcka and Kowalin. Their bodies were buried at the site by a Polish resident. Today, the area is overgrown by forest and remains unmarked.
According to the same witness, in 1942, five Jews from Olbięcin were discovered and murdered by gendarmes in the Kowalin forest, near Wólka Olbięcka. Their bodies were buried on-site by requisitioned Poles, but the exact location of the grave remains unknown.
Only a few children from the three Jewish families of Olbięcin survived the war. Among them were Josek, Majurek, and Nuta, who later emigrated to the United States and Israel.
¿Tiene información adicional con respecto a un pueblo que le gustaría compartir con Yahad?
Por favor contáctenos a contact@yahadinunum.org
o llamando a Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17