Krzywcza – grave no 1, the Jewish cemetery

Borough of Krzywcza, Przemyśl District, Podkarpackie Voivodship

Type of place

The Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza.

Information about the crime

On the Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza victims of the following murders that happened in Krzywcza are buried:

  • In June 1942 the Gestapo from Przemyśl murdered the Bilet family from Krzywcza. Józef Bilet (37 years old) with his wife and two sons (5 and 8 years old) were killed in their own home: the parents in the cellar and the children in their own beds. They were buried together on the Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza.
  • In August 1942 or in August 1943 nine Jewish women and men were shot to death by the Gestapo from Przemyśl on the cemetery. The victims came from Przemyśl, Kańczuga and Babice. Their bodies were buried in one grave (its dimensions: 2 metres by 2 metres) on the Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza. Among the victims there were people named: Pinkwas, Rosner and someone called Spitz from Babice.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On the 30th of September 2014 a GPR survey at the place indicated by the witness at Jewish cemetery, was carried out (GPS: N49°47.989′ E022°32.711′). The results of the surveys were low quality, despite the blurred image, an ground disturbance with presumed dimensions can be seen: the length of approx. 3.0 m, width approx. 2.0 m and depth approx. 0.8 m.

The LIDAR survey indicate topographic disturbance due to the small hill on which the cemetery is located. In addition, in the place indicated by the witness a small ground disturbance is visible.

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

Sources

Contact and cooperation

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

Bibliography

A letter from Barbara and Jerzy to the Chief Rabbi of Poland regarding the execution of Jews at the Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza on 19 January 2011.

IPN Bu 2248/883 from the questionnaire of the former Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland – rzeszowskie province.

IPN Bu 2448/884 from the questionnaire of the former Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland – rzeszowskie province.

IPN Rz 191/431, 4 cards (20, 20v, 21, 21v) from the Regional Commission for the Examination of Crimes against the Polish Nation file – Institute of National Remembrance in Rzeszów, Questionnaires of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland – repression of the Jewish population before the creation of the ghetto – Przemyśl province.

IPN Rz 191/421, 6 cards (44,45,47,47v, 48, 48v) The Regional Commission for the Examination of Crimes against the Polish Nation – Institute of National Remembrance in Rzeszów, Questionnaires of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland – Przemyśl province.

IPN Rz 191/202, card no. 57 from the files of the Regional Commission for the Examination of Crimes against the Polish Nation Institute of National Remembrance in Rzeszów, Register of places and facts of German crimes from the Przemyśl province.

Potocki A., Żydzi na podkarpaciu, 2004, p. 86.

Letter from the Commission for the Examination of Crimes against the Polish Nation of the Institute of National Remembrance to the Rabbinical Commission for Cemeteries of October 9, 2012 regarding the summary of the investigation conducted by the former The Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Rzeszów, file no. I S 333/72/Rz, whose threads were, among others, the murder of 14 people of Jewish nationality by German officials in September 1939 on the Kijów mountain near Krzywcza, podkarpackie province and the murder of 6 people of Jewish origin by officers of the German state, including 5 men and 1 woman, in the summer of 1943 at the Jewish cemetery in Krzywcza, Podkarpackie province.

3 cards from the investigation file, file no. I S 23/72, containing photographic documentation and a sketch of the location of the grave of 14 Jews on the Kijów mountain in the Krzywcza area, Przemyśl province.

Gk 163/36, k. 15,16 from the files of the group “Survey of places and facts of German crimes carried out by town courts”.

The register of sites and crimes committed by the Germans in Poland between 1939 and 1945. Przemyskie province, p. 54, Warsaw 1983.