Type of place

Information about the crime

The existence of a forgotten Jewish grave from the Holocaust in the Marcinów village was brought to our attention by a letter written on 1 September 2013 to the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw. The author of the letter stated that “just before the bridge, several metres to the left if you’re going from Michów, Germans ordered to quickly dig a ditch and bury several Jews murdered earlier.” The murder was committed during the Operation Reinhardt in the spring 1942 while Germans were transporting Jews from the Lubelskie Voivodship to the death camps: “A long column of carts and pedestrians escorted by military police and blue police walked from Michów to Kurów and then to the train station in Nałęczów. Those Jews who couldn’t walk were killed by the Germans and the ‘blue’ and thrown on the cart with corpses. The procession went through the villages in the borough of Abramów”, including through Kolonia Marcinów.

As a result of a search query in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance we managed to find documents confirming the fact that on 27 April 1942 in Marcinów (the borough of Wielkie, currently the borough of Abramów) military policemen shot to death 16 Jews from Michów. Their bodies were buried in a field, in a place called Olszynka, in a grave measuring 4 metres by 3 metres (IPN GK 196/322).

Commemoration

The place of the grave was marked with a wooden matzevah as part of the project “Reference points”. The project is an attempt to find a way to mark these places before they can be commemorated. The action was aimed as an intervention in the landscape of these places, which would remind about what remains invisible, even if present in the memory of local communities.Being only a temporary commemoration, wooden matzevot invite local communities to discuss and take action, to discover the places, and perhaps to start their own memory practice related to them or to permanently commemorate them.

You can read more about the project here (English below):

https://zapomniane.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/MACEWY_punkty-odniesienia_folder.pdf

The project of marking graves with wooden matzevot has been carried out by the Zapomniane Foundation since 2017. in constant cooperation with The Matzevah Foundation.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On the11th of June 2014 a GPR survey of the place indicated by the local residents was carried out(GPS: N51°28.024’E022°17.134′). The low quality of the survey result does not allow for accurate interpretation. Ground disturbance visible on echograms are not clear, despite this attempt to determine the size of the ground disturbance responsible for the mass grave in this location have been made. The approximate size is a length of approx. 3.5 m, width approx. 3.5 m. 2.0–2.5 m, depth approx. 0.8 m.

The LIDAR survey indicate the reduction of the terrain in this location.

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 Marcinów. If you know something more, write to us at the following address: fundacjazapomniane@gmail.com.

Bibliography

IPN Lu 1/13/42, p. 13 and 13v, the former Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Lublin, Questionnaire of places and facts of German crimes, Lubartów district.

IPN Lu 284/761, vol. 2, the former Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Lublin. Crimes committed by the Germans in 1942-1943 against persons of Jewish nationality in Kolonia Marcinów, Lubartów district.

IPN Gk 163/14, Questionnaire. Executions. Graves. Lublin province, volume III, Questionnaires about mass executions and mass graves – Lublin province.

IPN Gk 196/322.

Newsletter of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland, IX, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Prawnicze 1957, p. 202.

Register of places and facts of the crimes committed by the German occupier in Poland in 1939-1945. Lubelskie province, Warsaw 1985, p. 153.

Extract from the file of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland.

A letter of 1 September 2013 addressed to Jewish Community in Warsaw by prof. Antoni on the Jewish grave in Marcinów.