Jedlec | Greater Poland Voivodeship

Jedlec is a village located in the administrative district of Gmina Gołuchów, within Pleszew County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It is situated approximately 2 km (1 mile) east of Gołuchów, 15 km (9 miles) east of Pleszew, and 96 km (60 miles) southeast of the regional capital, Poznań.

There are no existing records or historical evidence indicating that Jedlec had a Jewish community before the Second World War. Neither archival sources nor witness testimonies suggest such a presence. However, Jedlec frequently appears in historical accounts related to the Holocaust, as it became a burial site for thousands of victims, including Jews, who were murdered by the Nazis using gas trucks during the war.

According to various sources, many victims buried in Jedlec originated from the Jewish community of Koźminek, a town approximately 30 km (18.6 miles) east of Jedlec. In 1921, Koźminek had 729 Jewish residents out of a total population of 2,273, constituting 32.1% of the local population. Led by Rabbi Konsztam, the Jewish community had a synagogue, a Jewish school, a ritual slaughterhouse, a bathhouse, and a cemetery likely established in the early 19th century. By the 1920s, Jews owned 62 of the town's 105 businesses.

Koźminek was characterized by its cultural and religious diversity. Alongside Poles and Jews, the town's population included Russians, Germans, Roma (Gypsies), and even Greeks. Catholics and Evangelicals primarily engaged in farming, while Jews were predominantly involved in trade. According to Sabina D., a Koźminek resident born in 1927, relations between the different communities were harmonious and respectful. Marriages between individuals from diverse backgrounds were common; Sabina herself was the daughter of an Evangelical father and a Jewish mother. She recalled, “People lived in peace. There were Russians here, Ukrainians, people of Jewish faith, and Catholics. The people were different, but they respected each other. There was no hatred. It was only when Hitler, that devil, came to power that hatred appeared.”

In Jedlec Forest, near Gołuchów, lie the mass graves of thousands of Jews, Poles, resistance fighters, intellectuals, and other groups targeted by the Nazis. There are five known mass graves, where children were buried among adults to maximize space. Those forced to dig the graves were subsequently executed by the Germans, who then planted birch trees to conceal the site. Historical sources estimate the number of victims between 10,000 and 12,000, primarily from labor camps in Blaszki, Kalisz, Koźminek, and surrounding areas. However, some official records indicate a lower figure of around 1,000. Oral accounts also suggest that victims from Opatówek may be buried there.

In November 1941 and early 1942, thousands of Jews and Poles were murdered by the Nazis and buried in Jedlec Forest. During the liquidation of the Koźminek ghetto—which housed deportees from Kalisz, Stawiszyn, and Ostrów Kaliski—around 600 Jews were killed using gas vans by Sonderkommando Lange and buried in these mass graves. Witness Sabina D., born in Koźminek in 1927, vividly remembers the liquidation beginning on November 26, 1941. She recalls large gray trucks with exhaust pipes directed inward arriving at the Koźminek synagogue, where mostly women and children were loaded and presumably killed by poison gas. Her testimony aligns with archival sources and historical literature confirming these events.

Wolfgang Curill, in his book "The Murder of Jews in Poland and the German Order Police 1939-1945," describes the liquidation of the Koźminek ghetto:

"At the end of November 1941, the gendarmerie surrounded the ghetto in Koźminek. That same day, Lange's Sonderkommando killed 75 ghetto residents using a gas van. The following day, the Order Police herded approximately 500 Jews into the small synagogue. Groups of 75 individuals were systematically removed and gassed. The elderly, sick, infirm, and children were targeted first. By December 1, 1941, Special Commander Lange had murdered approximately 600 Jews from Koźminek and an additional 100 Jews from Kalisz, who had been transferred there. The victims were subsequently buried in forests near Biernatki and Gołuchów."

Investigations in the late 1940s revealed mass graves in Jedlec Forest, leading to the erection of a small monument in 1957. Partial exhumations were conducted in October and November 1945 but ceased due to funding limitations and the overwhelming number of bodies. Items recovered included footwear, garments, religious items such as a stoup, rosary, prayer books, and identification documents belonging to Abraham and Ita Sura Feigen.

Today, a monument stands at the burial site, accompanied by an informational plaque in three languages providing a brief history of these tragic events.

Only a few Jews from Koźminek survived the Holocaust, among them Szlamek Bruks and his father Chaim, as well as Sabina Berent, the daughter of Chana (née Matusiak), a Jewish woman, and Bertold Berent, an Evangelical man. Their survival was aided by courageous locals, including Stanisława and Władysław Umerle, and Stanisława and Józef Kapłonek, along with their families, who risked their lives to offer assistance.

https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kalisz1/kal275.html