1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Tadeusz P. born in 1935: "Around 8 a.m., the Germans surrounded the village and gathered all the adult villagers in the central square. The Jews were also rounded up but were taken directly to a separate location, near a barn. There, a group of Jews was ordered to dig at the site of a former well—its location marked on a map the Germans carried. Once they had dug deep enough to reach the well, the Jews were taken in groups to the pit. They were shot and fell into the well. Their bodies remain there to this day.” [Testimony N°YIU260P, interviewed in Wereszczyn, on October 20, 2013]
"In May of 1942, I witnessed the pacification of the village of Wereszczyn. On that day, a brigade of Germans, Ukrainians, and gendarmes arrived from Cyców. They gathered the villagers in one place and separated the Polish and Jewish populations. The Jewish population numbered around a hundred. The Polish population was also separated: women on one side and men on the other. The German commander, who spoke fluent Polish, selected 30 men from the group of Polish and Ukrainian men. I was among those selected. He told those gathered that we were bandits. "You were giving food to the bandits." he said, pointing to our group. "You are going to be shot. The rest are going to be sent to forced labor in Germany." Just then, a German arrived on a motorcycle. He handed a document to the German who had spoken to us a few moments earlier. After reading the document, the German moved our group back toward the rest of the population and asked those whose names were to be read to come forward. He read the names of about seventeen or eighteen people. These men walked out of the ranks. They were taken 10 metres from us and shot on the orders of the German officer directing the action. Soldiers subordinate to him carried out the shooting. They wore grey-green uniforms bearing SS markings. There were also Ukrainians dressed in black.
At the same time, other Germans were executing the Jewish population. The execution took place near the well in the plot. The well had been out of use and partly destroyed for years. Before the execution, the Germans ordered the Jews to dig it open again. Once the well had been reopened, the Jews were shot at its edge. Bodies were thrown in. Some Jews were thrown in alive while the Germans fired into the well. In this way, the Germans murdered over 100 men, women and children. [Testimony of Zdzislaw Mierzwa, a 70-year-old blacksmith from Wereszczyn, dated May 25, 1966; IPN-OKL DS 122/67 p.8-8v]
Wereszczyn is a village in the administrative district of Urszulin, located in eastern Poland. It lies approximately 31 km (19 miles) southwest of Włodawa and 47 km (29 miles) east of the regional capital, Lublin.
During the interwar period, Wereszczyn was home to a mixed population of Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians. According to a local witness native to the village, the Jewish community was sizable enough that Wereszczyn was often referred to as a “Jewish village.” Jewish trade played a central role in the local economy, and many Jewish children attended the Polish public school established in the village.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, approximately 105 Jews lived in Wereszczyn.
Following the German invasion of Poland, the area of Wereszczyn was occupied by the Wehrmacht in mid-September 1939. Although no German forces were stationed in the village itself, a gendarmerie post was established in Cyców, 12 km to the south, and a Polish police post operated in nearby Urszulin.
Shortly after the occupation, the Jewish community of Wereszczyn was ordered to form a Judenrat (Jewish Council), headed by local merchant Alter Zunszajn. The Jews were allowed to remain in their homes until May 26, 1942, when nearly the entire community was murdered during a German-led operation.
On that day, German gendarmes, an SS unit, and Ukrainian auxiliaries surrounded the village in what was both a punitive Aktion—targeting locals suspected of aiding escaped prisoners of war—and an operation to exterminate the Jewish population. While Polish and Ukrainian residents were assembled in the village square—and some were shot—the Jewish residents were separated and taken to a barn in the eastern part of the village, near a long-abandoned well that had since been covered by earth.
A group of Jewish men was ordered to dig until they uncovered the well. Once it was exposed, the victims were brought out of the barn in small groups, lined up at the edge of the well, and executed. Their bodies were thrown directly into the shaft. In this manner, nearly the entire Jewish population of Wereszczyn—approximately 105 people—was exterminated.
The sole known survivor of the massacre was Miriam Zunszajn, a 9-year-old girl who managed to escape execution and survive the war. Initially, she was hidden for three months by Marianna Kozłowska in Urszulin, and later by Irena Urbach, a woman from a Polish-Jewish family. Both rescuers were later recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for their bravery and compassion.
After the war, Miriam Zunszajn returned to Wereszczyn and erected a memorial at the site of the massacre, next to the well where the victims' remains still lie.
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