Type of place

Information about the crime

We visited Kłudzice in the summer of 2021. The approximate location of the grave was pointed out to us by Jakub C., a local historian and activist, who was told the story of the place by Kłudzice resident Mr. Waclaw K. As a child, Mr. K. saw the corpses of two Jews killed by the road from Witów to Kłudzice. He came there with the other children out of curiosity when an eyewitness to the crime, a shepherd, came to the village to notify residents of the incident. Mr. K. heard that the Jews were walking along the road from Piotrków to Kłudzice. It was in the spring or summer of 1941 during the liquidation of the ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski. A German car stopped near them when they were “on the hill,” i.e., the hill where the road to Kludzice descends. The Jews were questioned about their identity and destination. After that, the interrogating German shot them. The peasants buried the Jews by the side of the road next to the apple tree, which is no longer there today. Mr. Waclaw did not recall any exhumation ever taking place. He remembered that the Jews were old but also mentioned that the Jews who came to his father for help were devastated by starvation.

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.

Contact and cooperation

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

Bibliography

Recording the Zapomniane Foundation (audio recording), Jakub C., interviewed by Andrzej Jankowski and Agnieszka Nieradko, Kłudzice, July 23, 2021.

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”.