1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Eugenia J. born in 1921: "The Germans came from Włodawa. There were about 50 Jews living in Urszulin. The Germans shot anyone they managed to catch. I saw one incident when a Jewish family—nine people, I believe—was taken out of their house and led behind a neighbor’s barn. They were killed there with q machine-gun. Their bodies were buried on the spot by requisitioned Poles.” [Testimony N°YIU270P, interviewed in Dębowiec on October 23, 2013]
"On 28 May 1942, the Nazis carried out a mass liquidation of Jews in Urszulin, Włodawa County. SS units from Włodawa took part in the operation. The Jews and Poles were rounded up separately. A Vlasov soldier released me, and I came back home. However, an SS officer then ordered me to dig pits and throw in the bodies of eleven Jews, including women and children. I dug the pit as ordered. This pit is now located in the courtyard of Konstanty Jarzabek and the site is not commemorated. The Jews were shot in the back of the head in a stable. I took the corpses out of the stable and threw them into the pit before filling it in. Although I didn't see the Jews being shot, I heard the shots and lowered the still-warm bodies from the stable into the pit myself. The bullets used in the shooting were explosive; the victims' heads were shredded, and blood and bits of brain covered the walls. I don't remember the names of the victims, but I know they were from Urszulin." [Testimony of Waclaw Jung, born in 1906, concerning the execution of 11 Jews and 16 Poles in the village of Urszulin, date May 28, 1966; Ds 120/67 p.3-3rev]
"After arriving in Urszulin, I learned that the Germans had murdered 15 people of Jewish nationality that day, including women, children and the elderly. According to Urszulin residents' accounts, a group of Germans in black uniforms had arrived from Włodawa that morning. They ordered all the Jews and young Poles to assemble at the site where the Konstanty Jarzabek buildings now stand. The Poles were taken the same day by the Germans to Cyców, then to Lublin. As for the Jews, the Germans called them one by one into the stable, where they were shot in the back of the head. 15 people were murdered that day. They were buried next to the stable in a dug-out grave.” [Testimony of Ignacy Tadeusz Sidorowski, aged 45, dated December 8, 1969; Ds 120/67 p.5-6v]
"We have determined that a mass shooting and arrest took place [in Urszulin] on May 26, 1942. According to the testimony of Konstant Jarzabek, a resident of Urszulin, an unknown group of gendarmers and SS arrived in Urszulin from the village Zalucz direction. However, according to the testimony of Jerzy Grabowski, a resident of Urszulin, there were 2 groups, one of which arrived in Urszulin on the Cyców side and the other on the Włodawa side. Then the 2 groups got together and began mass shootings and arrests on the Urszulin commune grounds:
- In Urszulin itself, 7 Jewish families were shot, 6 of them from Urszulin and o1ne from the neighboring village of Kozubata, making a total of 24 people;
- 11 Jews working on the estate of Donald Przybyszewski in Urszulin [Dębowiec];
- Following families were shot at this time: Zai Zarobczyk, Chyl Zarobczyk, Herszka Zarobczyk and Kelman family (whose first name is unknown); the names of the three other Jewish families shot are not known;
The bodies of the people shot were buried:
- The bodies of the Kalman [Goldszein] family were buried near the barn of Urszulin resident Jerzy Grabowski.
- The bodies of the Jewish family of Szaja Zarobczyk, Chyla Zarobczyk, and Herszka Zarobczyk were buried near the barn of Urszulin resident Konstanty Jarzabek.
- Other Jewish families were buried in a square near the Urszulin Young Farmers' Club building.
The corpses of Jews who worked on Donat Przybyszewski's estate, on the other hand, were buried in a damp area of the estate where there is now a septic tank for the Urszulin Mineral Water Factory. [Administrative notice from 1978; S 19/05/Zn, Vol.13, p. 2591-92]
Urszulin is a village in eastern Poland, located approximately 31 km (19 miles) southwest of Włodawa and 47 km (29 miles) east of Lublin, the regional capital.
During the interwar period, Urszulin was home to a mixed population of Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians. At the outbreak of the Second World War, around five Jewish families—totaling approximately 50 individuals—lived in the village.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Urszulin was occupied by German forces in mid-September 1939. The village was subsequently placed under the administrative jurisdiction of Chełm County in the Lublin District of the General Government. Although no German troops were permanently stationed in Urszulin, the village maintained a post of the Polish "Granatowa" (Blue) Police, while a German Gendarmerie post operated in nearby Cyców, 12 km to the south.
According to local witnesses, the small Jewish community of Urszulin—comprising five families—was allowed to remain in their homes until May 28, 1942, when the community was wiped out during a coordinated Aktion.
The massacre in Urszulin was the final episode in a series of anti-Jewish operations carried out by German forces and their Ukrainian auxiliaries across the region in late May 1942. The sequence began with mass executions in Andrzejów, Zastawie, and Wereszczyn on May 26, followed by Cyców on May 27, and culminated in Urszulin on May 28. These operations followed a recurring pattern: the local population was gathered in a central location, Jews were separated from the Polish and Ukrainian residents, and then executed—often with machine guns. While these Aktionen were explicitly anti-Jewish, they also served as punitive actions against the local non-Jewish population for suspected support of partisan resistance.
Archival records confirm that the perpetrators in Urszulin included SS and Gendarmerie units from Włodawa and Lublin, assisted by Ukrainian auxiliaries. Witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum reported seeing perpetrators in steel-gray uniforms adorned with skull insignias on their caps.
Unlike other operations, the Urszulin Aktion was distinguished by its decentralized nature: the Jewish victims were not gathered at a single site but were executed at three different locations within Urszulin and a fourth site outside the village, on the grounds of the former estate of Józef Donat Przybyszewski.
One local witness recalled seeing nine members of a Jewish family—likely the Kalman (Goldszein) family—taken from their home and shot with a machine gun near Jerzy Grabowski’s barn, where they were later buried. Another family, the Zarobczyks, was killed and buried near Konstanty Jarząbek’s barn. Additional victims were buried in a square near the former Urszulin Young Farmers’ Club building. The final identified burial site, on the Dębowiec estate associated with Przybyszewski, is now partially covered by modern development.
Yahad investigative work confirmed the location of one of the three mass graves mentioned in Polish archives.
In 2018, a memorial was erected in Urszulin to honor the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. The monument cites 90 Jewish victims murdered in May 1942. The names inscribed include:
These 90 victims likely include victims killed on the Dębowiec estate, detailed in a separate profile.
Additional atrocities were also recorded in the village. One local witness recounted the murder of a Jewish woman and her child, who, after a period in hiding, surrendered to the Germans and were subsequently shot. Another witness observed two unidentified men being escorted by a policeman and a German officer from the Urszulin police station; one of the men was shot, while the other managed to escape.
The same witness also described a separate event in April 1943, in which between 16 and 20 Poles were executed for allegedly stealing potatoes reserved for the German contingent. This incident is corroborated by archival sources.
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