![Marianna P., born in 1926: "The column of carts passed through Wojcieszków, they were filled with Jews from Adamow with all their belongings, as if they [the Jews] thought they were going to settle somewhere else." ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum](/thumb/cache/2239f26349aef4310e9588c95da54fc9/104870/media_fichier_YIU_POL21_Jour08_LUBLIN_Wojcieszkow_T835_0690.jpg)
2 Killing site(s)
Marianna P., born in 1926: "My father was the Sołtys [village chief]. He was required to provide the Germans with carts to transport the Jews. One day, the Jews from Adamów passed through Wojcieszków on their way to Łuków. There were about twenty carts filled with people, carrying everything they could—luggage, blankets. They believed they were being taken somewhere else. I remember seeing a Jewish woman from Wojcieszków, Hanna, handing a small package to some Jews in one of the carts. A German officer, dressed in a black uniform, saw her. He approached her, threw her to the ground, and struck her with his long rifle—killing her on the spot […] Another day, I witnessed a group of Jews being executed in a meadow, not far from the detention center in Wojcieszków. Men, women, and children—all lined up. A pit had already been dug. They were forced to stand at its edge, and the Germans in black uniforms shot them in groups. I was with other children, watching from about a hundred meters away, hidden behind a wall. Later, the villagers were made to fill in the pit.” [Testimony N°YIU835P, interviewed in Wojcieszków on June 21, 2018]
"In August 1943 in Wojcieszków, Łuków county, 13 local Jews were shot. Their bodies were buried at the site of the killing." [Minutes of the Court Municipal in Kock, dated October 8, 1945; IPN 337 E1140]
Wojcieszków is a village in Łuków County, eastern Poland, located 18 km (11 miles) south of Łuków and 61 km (38 miles) north of Lublin, the regional capital.
According to a local witness interviewed by Yahad, a few Jewish families lived in the village before the war. They owned all the stores and provided essential services, including bakery, tailoring, and shoemaking. One of the Jewish homes also served as a synagogue.
Jewish and Catholic children attended the same school. However, the main synagogue and Jewish cemetery were located in Adamów, a town 5 km to the southwest.
As recorded in the 1921 census, 149 Jews lived in Wojcieszków, making up 2% of the total population of 7,390 residents.
After the outbreak of war Wojcieszków, along with the entire Łuków district, was initially occupied by the Wehrmacht. In late September 1939, control briefly passed to the Soviet army, which withdrew in early October, leaving the area permanently under German rule.
Shortly after, the new German administration was established in Wojcieszków. This included a unit of the Polish Blue Police ("Granatowa"), consisting of 16 Poles and two Germans (according to a Yahad witness), as well as an SS unit stationed at the Suchodolski family manor. A detention center was also set up in the village.
Although no ghetto was created in Wojcieszków, local Jews were subjected to forced labor, primarily cleaning and repairing roads. They were also forced to wear white armbands with the Star of David. According to a local witness, Jewish police were responsible for maintaining order and collecting ransoms from the Jewish population in exchange for temporary permission to remain in the village.
In October 1942, Jews from the Łuków area were progressively rounded up and sent to the Łuków ghetto in preparation for deportation to the Treblinka death camp. Between October 4 and 7, 1942, approximately 1,700 Jews from Adamów were deported to Łuków. As a long column of carts carrying Jewish inhabitants and their belongings passed through Wojcieszków, a local Jewish woman was shot while attempting to give food to the Jews in the column.
A few days later, it is presumed that the Jews of Wojcieszków were also deported to Łuków. Historical records indicate that they were among those sent to Treblinka during deportation Aktions on October 26–27 and November 7–11, 1942.
After the mass deportations, isolated killings of Jews continued. While some sources suggest a mass execution in September 1942, Polish archival records indicate that 13 local Jews were murdered in August 1943.
Yahad witnesses reported that two groups of Jews were executed between 1942 and 1943 at two separate locations near the detention center in Wojcieszków. One eyewitness described the execution of around 30 Jews, shot by Germans in black uniforms at the edge of a pit dug behind the detention center. Another witness recounted the killing of several dozen Jewish men, women, and children in a meadow near the detention center. Both executions were carried out in the presence of German forces and Polish Blue Police officers. In both cases, local villagers were forced to bury the victims at the execution sites.
In addition to the executions in Wojcieszków, some Jewish families from the area who had managed to escape deportation and hide in nearby forests were eventually captured and killed. Historical sources indicate that 40 Jews from Adamów fled into the forests near Wojcieszków to join the armed Jewish resistance. According to a local witness, a German unit from Łuków eventually discovered two bunkers hidden in the forest, where about 30 Jews from Adamów were living. The soldiers surrounded the bunkers and killed the Jewish families inside using grenade launchers. The bodies of the victims were buried in the forest the following day.
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