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2 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Jozef L., born in 1935: “I don't remember the exact date, but I do remember when we went to watch the Ukrainians shoot the children. We hid behind the green rye, which was still growing. [...] The Soltys requisitioned ten trolleys, with two Ukrainians on each—one sat in front next to the driver, while the other sat behind. They took the children to a pit near the Jewish cemetery, about 1 kilometer from here. [...] Around a hundred people were shot there, including elderly individuals."
[Testimony N°YIU738P, interviewed in Belzyce, on August 23, 2017]
"I remember that the camp was liquidated on the night of 8 May (1943). That night, the Germans and Ukrainians surrounded the ghetto. They began the selection process. Young, healthy people were chosen and sent by truck to Majdanek, or Budzyn, or by horse-drawn carriage to Poniatowa. During the selection, the Jews were beaten and tortured. Screaming and crying could be heard. Those who didn't leave were grouped together in one place and ordered to dig pits, after which they were shot. […] I also remember that during the existence of the camp, after the harvest, Germans ordered all members of the Fire Brigade to appear in the morning at the cemetery. I was also a member of the Brigade. When we came half an hour early, we saw 180 people from the camp, all children and elderly. After we had dug the graves, they ordered us to turn around and they shot the Jews with machine guns. I saw myself how the Germans, assisted by dogs, were checking whether they were all dead, if any of them showed signs of life, they killed them with pistols. After the execution, we started burying the bodies. I remember that while we were burying the bodies, a 15-year-old boy, who was alive, arose from the grave. At that time, Germans left, and the boy was taken by his father back to the ghetto."[Testimony of Stanislaw Adamczyk, blacksmith living in Bełżyce during the occupation, collected on July 31, 1967 in Lublin; IPN Lu 284/433/1]
Bełżyce is a town located 26 km (16.1 miles) southwest of Lublin in eastern Poland. The first record of a Jewish community in the town dates back to the early 16th century, and the Jewish presence steadily grew over the following centuries. In 1674, there were 96 Jewish residents, and by 1787, the Jewish population had increased to 666, making up 51% of the town's total population.
During the 19th century, the Jewish population doubled, reaching 1,877 residents (60.6% of the total population) by 1897. According to the first national census in 1921, the Jewish population in Bełżyce stood at 1,882, representing 51% of the total population.
From the start of their settlement in Bełżyce, the Jewish community established its own wooden synagogue, cemetery, and a prestigious Jewish school. A new cemetery was established in 1825 on what is now Przemysłowa Street. In 1913, a devastating fire struck the town, destroying many Jewish homes, the local synagogue, and a historic 17th-century Jewish inn and tavern. Despite the destruction, the fire did not hinder the religious and educational life of the local Jewish population. The synagogue’s role was taken over by six large prayer houses and eight cheder schools, which provided primary education for Jewish boys.
In the interwar period, Bełżyce's Jewish community was led by Hasidic Rabbi Gedali Jakubson. Social and political life was vibrant, with representation from major Jewish parties, including Zionist, Labour, and Orthodox groups.
From the early days of Jewish settlement, the community was heavily involved in trade, a position strengthened by Bełżyce's strategic location on the Sandomierz-Lublin road. During the interwar period, Jewish merchants dominated local commerce, running shops that sold haberdashery, dry goods, groceries, and ironmongery. Many of the town’s tailors, bakers, butchers, carpenters, and shoemakers were also Jewish.
By August 1939, the Jewish population in Bełżyce had grown to 2,100.
Bełżyce was occupied by German troops on September 16, 1939, immediately giving rise to persecutions and humiliations against the Jewish population. Anti-Jewish legislation was quickly introduced, including the requirement for Jews to wear armbands bearing the Star of David and the marking of Jewish shops. Although a formal ghetto was not initially established, Jews were forbidden from accessing the town's main streets and market square and were subjected to a curfew. From the beginning of the occupation, Jews were treated as forced labor, used for road repairs, snow clearing, and agricultural work on nearby estates.
In January 1940, the Judenrat (Jewish Council) was formed, and sources suggest that the Bełżyce ghetto was established sometime between 1940 and 1941. The Jewish population, concentrated around the synagogue, suffered from severe overcrowding, hunger, and disease, including a typhus outbreak in April 1941. The Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) organization provided meals and some clothing for the needy.
There was no permanent German gendarmerie post in Bełżyce; instead, the town was inspected twice a week by gendarmes from Niedrzwica, who regularly persecuted and robbed the Jewish residents. These gendarmes and their Ukrainian auxiliaries also carried out several individual executions of Jews. On June 16, 1940, they conducted the first mass execution, killing 13 people, including 10 Jews.
The Jewish population of Bełżyce steadily increased during the occupation due to the resettlement of Jews from other areas. Jews from Puławy began arriving at the end of 1939, followed by 300 expellees from Stettin and 681 Jews from Kraków between February and March 1940. In May 1940, Jews from Lublin were also relocated to Bełżyce, bringing the town's Jewish population to 3,499, making it the second-largest Jewish community in Kreis Lublin-Land.
Several deportations of Jews from Bełżyce to the Majdanek concentration camp occurred during the occupation. In two Aktions, one on May 11, 1942, and another on October 3, 1942, between 430 and 580 Jewish men, along with another group of Jewish men and women, were deported. During the second Aktion, around 150 patients from the Jewish hospital were shot in front of the synagogue, and their bodies were later buried in the Jewish cemetery.
Between October 9 and 12, 1942, approximately 4,000 Jews from surrounding localities were brought to Bełżyce, increasing the ghetto population to 10,000. These individuals were sorted, with some sent to forced labor camps, while children, women, and the elderly were sent to the Treblinka death camp.
In late 1942, the remaining 1,300 Jews in Bełżyce were confined to a 2-hectare area near the synagogue, where a labor camp was established. Survivors referred to this area as a closed ghetto. The inmates were forced to work on the construction of the Bełżyce-Niedrzwica road and to sort the belongings of Jews who had been deported from nearby areas.
The final Aktion took place on May 8, 1943, led by SS-Unterscharführer Reinhold F. and a group of Ukrainian Trawniki men. On that day, about 300 Jewish men were selected and sent to the labor camp in Poniatowa, while 500 others, including members of the Judenrat and Jewish policemen, were deported to Budzyń camp. The remaining Jews were locked inside the synagogue as a pit was dug nearby by selected Jewish prisoners. Jewish women, children, and weaker men were then ordered to undress and were marched to the pit, where they were shot. An estimated 800 to 1,000 people were killed that day and buried at the site. Yahad researchers later located the mass grave. According to an eyewitness, Ukrainian auxiliaries also massacred babies in the ghetto's maternity unit on the same day.
According to Polish archives and local witnesses, around 100 children and elderly individuals were taken by trolleys to the Jewish cemetery, where they were executed. Yahad researchers were able to locate their mass grave as well.
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