Type of place

Information about the crime

In May 2022, we carried out a site inspection of the grave of two people in Nowosielce. The remains of a Jewish woman and her granddaughter were buried in an unmarked grave. We were accompanied by Agata and Włodzimierz Kozieradzki, who for many years have been involved in documenting the history of Jews living in Nowosielce until the outbreak of World War II. Over the years, Agata Kozieradzka interviewed forty residents of Nowosielce who remembered their Jewish neighbors and friends. Thanks to her work, we know a lot about ten Jewish families living in the village and we know the approximate location of the grave of Tauba Toder and her granddaughter Minia Schaff.

“Czesława witnessed a terrible event. A German led a Jewish woman and a little girl, whose name was probably Hania, towards Pisarowce. She didn’t know where he had taken them.

Daniela M. […] worked in the building next to the manor house. She saw a German bringing  a Jewish woman with a child to the Gniewoszów manor. They were caught for not reporting to the ghetto in Bukowsko. The Gestapo was stationed in the mansion. They locked her up for the night in the basement – the manor’s icehouse. Daniela heard the Jewish woman begging, screaming, to give the child something to eat. She saw villagers who, fearing the Germans, secretly brought food and gave it to the woman through a window in the basement. The next morning, Daniela, terrified, saw a sixty-year-old Jewish woman in a long coat through the window, followed by a small seven-year-old girl with black, curly hair, walking from the manor house towards the forest. The frightened girl kept looking behind her. She was followed by two Polish Blue Policemen and a game warden who worked for Gniewosz at the manor. Behind them came two Germans firing machine guns upwards. With each shot, the terrified girl jumped up and kept looking back. Grandmother and her granddaughter were shot in the forest. Irena W. and Kazimiera indicated the place where they put flowers on the grave of Jewish grandmother and granddaughter, shot by the Germans and buried there”. (from Agata Kozieradzka’s notes)

The murdered Tauba Toder was married to Majer, with whom she had seven children. One of their daughters, Gitla (born in 1909), married Lipa Schaff in 1934 and settled in Zagórze. They had two children, son Dawid and daughter Minia (born in 1935). Gitla and Dawid survived the war in the Soviet Union. Minia and her grandmother Tauba were killed in Nowosielce.

“Majer tried to persuade Tauba to escape. Their daughter had just got married and lived in Zagórze. They had a shop and were a respected family. Majer’s opinion always counted. He got on the train and went to Zagórze to help with the children. His daughter’s husband was very orthodox and he prayed all the time. He didn’t help with the children. Majer often went there. Later, when the Germans came, a friend from Zagórze who respected the family told them: “Run away. They will come after the Jews.” It was 1939. Dawid was 10 months old when his mother hid him in a pillow, crossed the San river, and escaped to Siberia. But grandma said she wouldn’t move from Nowosielce. She felt safe here. She didn’t want to hear about the escape. She didn’t want to go anywhere. She hid in several places. The people I interviewed didn’t know the names, but they knew that someone was hiding somewhere in a barn, and then someone gave them up. The witnesses had already died, but I had time to talk to them. When the Jewish women were held in the manor’s icehouse, the woman screamed to give the child something to eat. Someone saw the neighbors secretly giving the woman food. The next day they were taken to the forest. 

– Is the forest far away?

– No. Not too far from the manor. They took them to the forest and shot them there.

– How do you know where exactly?

– The two women I spoke to… We took them to the forest. As children, they used to go and put flowers on this grave. They knew that a child was buried there. They remembered it. One of them died last year”. (Nowosielce, May 17, 2022)

In the resources of the Regional Commission for the Examination of Crimes in Rzeszów, there is a document confirming the murder of a woman with a child in Nowosielce. The event allegedly took place in the spring of 1942 in the morning hours, “the above-mentioned persons were held overnight in the station’s icehouse”. (IPN Rz 191/488)

Commemoration

The place of the grave was marked with a wooden matzevah in 2022 as part of the project “Reference points – marking 25 Jewish war graves with wooden matzevot”. The project is an attempt to find a way of marking these places before they can be commemorated. Marking forgotten Jewish war graves with wooden matzevot is a subtle intervention in the landscape reminding about what remains invisible, yet 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 initiate a permanent commemoration.

You can read more about the project here:  https://tinyurl.com/2p9ar52f

The project was implemented thanks to the funding from The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland (Stowarzyszenie Żydowski Instytut Historyczny) and The Matzevah Foundation.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On May 17, 2022, a site inspection was carried out to determine the location of the grave of two victims. 

In this case, without a precise determination of the search area, it is not possible to find the location of the grave.

(approximate GPS coordinates: N 49°34.259′ E 022°05.191′).

Aerial photography query for this area wasn’t ordered.

The LiDAR survey results are inconclusive due to the topographic diversity.

Contact and cooperation

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

Bibliography

Recording of the Zapomniane Foundation (audio file), name: Agata Kozieradzka, subject and keywords: Jewish grave in Nowosielce, interviewed by Agnieszka Nieradko, Nowosielce, May 17, 2022.

IPN Rz 191/486 Questionnairs of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland. Executions, Sanok district, 1968-1969

Archive of Agata Kozieradzka from Nowosielce

We have collected the materials about this village thanks to the funding provided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance as part of the project “The rural Holocaust. Collecting and safeguarding the never recorded testimonies 100 forgotten Jewish graves 2021-2022”. The materials for this website were developed, digitized and made available as part of the project “Development of a digital archive of Jewish war graves outside the extermination camps and educational use of archive resources” thanks to funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund.