Type of place

Information about the crime

In 2022, we investigated the case of the murder of Muniek Rychter from Zdów (link). Thanks to Mr. Józef Dorobisz, who for years preserved the memory of Muniek, we located the place where the body of the young Jew from Zdów was buried and marked it with a wooden matzevah. After some time, we received information that a student at one of the schools in Zawiercie had obtained details about the burial site of the murdered members of Muniek Rychter’s family. The Rychters were the only Jewish family living in Zdów and they ran a shop. Muniek was probably the youngest son of Major and Sara Rychter. Thanks to the local residents, we obtained information about the burial site of the family’s senior member, Major, and a young pregnant woman from the family, whose name is unknown, probably Major’s daughter-in-law or sister-in-law. They were murdered after their hiding place was denounced.

“- Major is buried in Wałeniec.

Zapomniane: Is this where we were, in front of the stable?

– Major is buried there.

Zapomniane: Wait a minute, that’s where the sand pit is, right?

– Yes, yes. […]

Zapomniane: Tell me one more thing. In that hideout, was the pregnant woman who was murdered in Waleniec?

– Yes.

Zapomniane: Were the Rychters also hiding there?

– Well, they were. She was the daughter-in-law, married to one of the Rychters.

Zapomniane: Oh, she was Major’s daughter-in-law.

– Yes.

Zapomniane: So she was part of that family.

– Yes. She was the daughter-in-law, the wife of one of the Rychters. No, not the daughter-in-law, more like the sister-in-law. His brother’s wife.

Zapomniane: Major’s brother.

– Yes, she was Major’s brother’s wife.

Zapomniane: So they were all one family.

– And here, where I live, there were these piles. And they made holes in one of those piles and slept there. But when my grandfather… he found out. One of his friends said: ‘Listen, people are saying that Jews are hiding there. If they report you, they will come and kill your entire family.’

Zapomniane: And that pile was on your land, right?

– Yes, yes. Mostly it was here, where I live now – out in the yard. [My grandfather] called that old Jewish woman Sura. And he told her: ‘Listen, Sura. Go away, because they’ll kill my entire family because of you.’ And my grandmother used to bring them food.

Zapomniane: And where did they go next?

– They were hiding out in the field, towards Dobrogoszczyce, in some pits. There were bushes, shrubs, and a deep pit. That’s where they were hiding. My grandmother went to bring them food. My grandmother was taking the food there, and the police from Lelów arrived. Then the blue police shot them. The blue police came; there was a house there. There was another house there, I think. And they arrived and headed toward the pits. They must have had information that they were hiding there.” (May 9, 2024)

On the same day, we went to the forest near Boblice, to the place where the murdered Icek Rychter was buried.

“Zapomniane: Could you tell me, who is buried here from this family?

– Icek or something like that. One of the Rychters, of course. Szubert [Julius Schubert, deputy commander of the German military police in Żarki] was riding a cart, got off, and walked through the forest. And that’s where he encountered him. Rychter didn’t stay in the village because he was afraid, he wandered around the forest. And when he encountered him, he killed him. I used to come here to pick mushrooms, and he showed me this place, saying: ‘Here, they killed that Muniek’, or someone. Not Muniek, but… Icek. Because there was Srul, Icek, and two twins.” (May 9, 2024)

In his book devoted to the wartime history of the Zawiercie area, Józef Kijowski lists the following members of the Rychter family from Zdów:

Major, Dawid, Icek, Muniek, Srul, Rychter (wife), Sura. They all probably died during the Holocaust. (Kijowski, 1999)

Contact and cooperation

We are still looking for information on the identity of the victims and the location of Jewish graves in Dobrogoszczyce. If you know something more, write to us at the following address: kontakt@zapomniane.org.

Bibliography

Recording of the Zapomniane Foundation (audio file), Kazimierz M., interviewed by Andrzej Jankowski, May 9, 2024.

Józef Kijowski, Ziemia zawierciańsko-myszkowska w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939-1945, Zawiercie 1999

The materials published on this website were developed, digitized, and made available thanks to funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage through the Culture Promotion Fund, as well as support from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw, which also enabled the creation of the English-language version of the website.