Type of place

Information about the crime

In the forest between the villages of Trzciano Nowe and Lipowy Most a group of refugees from the Białystok ghetto was hiding – seven men aged about 30 and a woman around 20. They were hiding there from Summer to late Autumn. During this time, the local people provided them with food. When the first snow fell, the gamekeeper informed the forester about suspicious tracks on the snow. „A special unit of a military police from Konopna Góra had set an ambush in the forest and all the Jews were murdered. They were ordered to take off the clothes, lie face down in a row along the road and were shot in the back of the head” (pages of the file of the former Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Białystok). The bodies were buried at the place of execution, where they remain to this day.

Commemoration

The place is marked by the local people with a plaque describing the number of victims, their place of origin and the month and the year of execution.

The place of the grave was marked with a wooden matzevah in 2020 as part of the project  “Reference points  – marking 24 Jewish war graves with wooden matzevot ” . The project is an attempt to find a way to mark these places before they can be commemorated. The action was aimed as an intervention in the landscape of these places, which would remind about what remains invisible, even if 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 permanently commemorate them.

You can read more about the project here (English below):

https://zapomniane.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/MACEWY_punkty-odniesienia_folder.pdf

The project was implemented thanks to funding from the Stowarzyszenie Żydowski Instytut Historyczny and The Matzevah Foundation.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRAVE BASED ON NON INVASIVE RESEARCH

The ceremony to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Nowy Trzciana took place on June 8, 2022.

The tombstone in Nowe Trzciana, for the sake of nature protection, was located 300 meters from the burial place of the victims. The burial place is marked with a wooden matzeva and stone pillars indicating the range of the grave.

Project implemented thanks to the support of:

U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, Szudzialowo Commune, Supraśl Forest District, Common Forms, European Union.

On February 20, 2018 the site inspection was carried out in the presence of a witness, in order to locate the mass grave of seven victims who according to the witness were  murdered and buried in February 1944. The witness precisely indicated the place of burial (GPS: N53°13.631′ E023°32.182′), which was marked by the local people with a plaque describing the number of victims, their place of origin and the month and the year of execution.

The size of the topographical relief confirms numerous disturbances in the area indicated by the witness, which makes it difficult to precisely determine the disturbance related to the grave.

GPR surveys in this location are planned for the spring of 2021.

The aerial photography query for this area was not ordered.

Contact and cooperation

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

Bibliography

File of the former Regional Commission for the Examination of German Crimes in Białystok – Mikołaj Wilczyński’s account of Jewish war graves in Trzciano Nowe, photographic documentation of the site inspection of the place, plan of the described place.