Type of place

Information about the crime

In the forest adjacent to the village of Jędrzejów Nowy, borough of Jakubów, near Mińsk Mazowiecki, there was a dugout where Jews hid from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943. This place is called Łysa Górka and is known to many villagers.

In the summer of 1943, on the orders of the forester (relocated from Poznańskie), several men from the village were assigned to work in the forest, cutting trees for the Germans. By chance, they came across a dugout in which five Jews were hiding. Three people managed to escape because one of their captors let them go, and two men were taken to Polikarp K.’s yard. The deputy village head locked them in a cell and sent a messenger to the German military police station in Kałuszyn. When the military police arrived two hours later, he led both Jews outside and the military police shot them. After the execution, the peasants loaded the bodies onto a cart and took them to the forest, where they were buried in the dugout where they had previously been hiding.

Based on the account of a resident of the village, Ryszard W. (born 1922), the following people were shot at that time: a young man from Jędrzejów, Jankiel Cukierman, Kopł’s son, and one of the three sons of the blacksmith from Kałuszyn, Jankiel Finkelsztejn (aged around 40). Josek Chryniewiecki escaped but was soon shot in Moczydła.

Commemoration

The graves were marked with wooden matzevot as part of the “30 matzevot in 30 days” initiative – a project a project to mark Holocaust sites in southern and eastern Poland in September 2017. The American Matzevah Foundation was a partner in the project.

“Reference points” 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: link

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On 9 February 2015 and 22 May 2018, a site inspection was carried out to determine the location of the mass grave of two victims. The indicated area is extensive (GPS: N 52°11.115′ E021°42.579′) and covered with trees. Numerous depressions occurring in this area may have various origins (see LiDAR Attachment 1). Locating the grave using non-invasive methods is very challenging, given its small size amid other disturbances of the soil layers in this area.

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

Research with geophysical tools was not carried out.

Contact and cooperation

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

Bibliography

IPN GK 318/34 Files in the case: Polikarp Klukowski and others accused of betraying two persons to the German gendarmerie in the spring of 1943 in the town of Jędrzejów (Mińsk Mazowiecki district), contributing to their death, i.e. an act under Article 1 of the Decree of August 31, 1944

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