Type of place

Information about the crime

The oldest residents of Chroberz remember very well the murder of a Jewish woman and her two sons. A woman born in 1932 recounts what she witnessed as a child: “I saw it, I was a big girl. Germans were coming and a Jewish boy was running away from them. He was maybe 10-12 years old. I used to live just next to the river. There was a policeman called Siemianowski and one German. The policeman was from Chroberz. […] And the Jewish boy was running away, they almost reached the river, maybe 50 metres were left. And [the German] ordered the policeman to shoot but he didn’t shoot straight. The German hit Siemianowski with his rifle butt. – Where are you shooting?! – We got scared and I don’t know whether Siemianowski shot straight in the end or whether it was the German. [The boy] fell into the water, it wasn’t deep. They shot him to death. […] The child collapsed in the water. […] Where this child came from and whether he was with his mother, I don’t know.” (Chroberz, 10 March 2015.)

A resident of Chroberz born in 1932 also recounts an execution of a Jewish woman with three children shot at the Nida river in autumn 1943. (IPN Ki 53/5097 p. 6)

It appears that the murdered woman was probably the wife of a local glazier called Kluski or Chluski. According to our interlocutors, the glazier’s family had four children: Romek who was killed somewhere in the forest and was 17 at the time of death, Olek, Rózia (who was killed with her siblings or ended up with her father in the ghetto in Busko-Zdrój) and the youngest Heniuś who was shot at the river. Historical documents confirm that the glazier from Chroberz died in the ghetto is Busko. (IPN Ki 53/5097 p. 7)

Commemoration

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On the 10th of March 2015 a local vision in a place precisely indicated by the local resident was carried out (GPS: N50°25.627’E020°33.481′).

No GPR surveys have been conducted.

The LIDAR survey in is not helpful in this case, due to the size of the exploration facility.

The aerial photography query for this area wasn’t ordered.

Contact and cooperation

We are still looking for information on the identity of the victims and the location of Jewish graves in Chroberz. If you know something more, write to us at the following address: fundacjazapomniane@gmail.com.

Bibliography

Resources of the Zapomniane Foundation, written down testimony, name: Władysław, b. 1932, subject and key words: Jewish graves in Chroberz, Extermination of Jews in Chroberz, sent to the Zapomniane Foundation by a granddaughter, a resident of Pińczów, on 29 October, 2013.

Recording of the Zapomniane Foundation (audio file), married couple from Chroberz [woman – born in 1932], place of residence: Chroberz, subject and keywords: Jewish graves in Chroberz, Extermination of Jews in Chroberz, 10 March 2015.

IPN Ki 013/2092. Files of the case against Kazimierz Siemianowski.

IPN Ki 128/25, Investigation files and court files regarding Kazimierz Siemianowski, son of Antoni, b. 27 January, 1909

IPN GK 163/6, Questionnaires about mass executions and mass graves. Kieleckie province.

IPN BU 2448/356-357, Questionnaires of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland.

IPN GK 179/103, German crimes committed in the Pińczów district – list.

IPN Ki 53/5097 k. 135-143. Crimes committed in the vicinity of Chroberz.

The register of sites and crimes committed by the Germans in Poland between 1939 and 1945. Kieleckie province, Warsaw 1980, p. 46.

Domański T., Jankowski A., “Represje niemieckie na wsi kieleckiej 1939-1945”, p. 264-266.

Bochniak P., Czy wiesz, że… żyli wśród nas, http://chroberz.info/serwis/index.php/czy-wiesz-ze/2848-2015-11-07-07-06-27 (access: 26/03/2015), printout.