Type of place

Information about the crime

On 30 September 2014 we received a telephone call from Legionowo about a forgotten Jewish grave. It is located at Kwiatowa Street, between houses no 1 and 3, in a gap between buildings. In it, bodies of five or six men murdered while attempting to escape the ghetto are buried.

This event took place in the autumn 1942 during the transport of Jews to death camps. This is an account of a relative of a man who secretly and against German orders buried the bodies: “When the ghetto in Legionowo was liquidated four or five or six men escaped to the forest. [They must have been] young because married ones wouldn’t probably leave their families. There were at least four of them. A commando of German military police captured them and shot them and forbade to bury them. But my uncle took a spade in the middle of the night and went there and buried them. After he came back, my father asked:

– Where did you go?

– You can’t leave people like rats on a scrap heap.

– If Germans had caught you, that would have been it! You should have told me, we would have done it together, it would have been faster.

– Why should we both risk? One was enough so I did it.

So they are buried close to the road, at the back behind the houses, in a gap between buildings, very close to the road.” (Legionowo, 28 January 2015.)

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

On the 28th of January 2015 a local vision at the location indicated by the witness was carried out. The location has been given to an accuracy of several meters (GPS: N52°23.764′ E020°56.853′).

No GPR surveys were conducted.

The LIDAR survey indicate numerous ground disturbances 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 Legionowo. If you know something more, write to us at the following address: fundacjazapomniane@gmail.com.

Bibliography

Recording of the Zapomniane Foundation (audio file), name: lack of data [witness to the story], place of residence: Legionowo, b. [lack of data], subject and keywords: Jewish graves in Legionowo, interviewed by Agnieszka Nieradko, Legionowo, 28 January 2015.

IPN BU 2448/966, Questionnaires of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland and the Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Warsaw, collected in 1968-1972, Surveys regarding the Warsaw province – XV, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki district.

IPN BU 2448/969, Archive of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland. Questionnaires: repression of the Jewish population before the creation of the ghetto.

IPN BU 2448/970. Archive of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland. Questionnaires: executions.

IPN BU 2448/1085, Questionnaires of the Chief Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Poland and the Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Warsaw, collected in 1968-1972, Questionnaires regarding the Warsaw province – XV, various districts.

The register of sites and crimes committed by the Germans in Poland between 1939 and 1945. Warsaw province, Warsaw 1988, p. 113-125.