Type of place

Information about the crime

On 27 August 2014 we conducted a site inspection of a grave of 6 Jews who were hiding in a forest after their escape from the ghetto in Kleszczele. According to some of the local residents, the bodies of the murdered people stayed in the dug-out in which they were hiding. In the 1960s sand was sourced from this place for a building site. It was stopped after human bones were uncovered.

Commemoration

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

On the 27th of August 2014, a GPR survey of the location indicated by the residents was carried out (GPS: N52°35.092’E 023°29.680′). The place under investigation has been affected in the past, which prevents a reliable estimation of the format of the ground disturbance responsible for the mass grave. The results of the survey confirmed the presence of shallow ground disturbances at a depth of approximately 0.5 m and deeper at a depth of approx. 1.4 m . The site location took place without the presence of the witness.

The LIDAR survey was not conducted in this area.

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 Wojnówka. If you know something more, write to us at the following address: fundacjazapomniane@gmail.com.

Bibliography

Recording of the Zapomniane Foundation (audio file), residents of Wojnówka [witnesses to the story], b. [lack of data], subject and keywords: Jewish graves in Wojnówka, inetviewed by Agnieszka Nieradko, Wojnówka, 27 August 2014.