Wąsosz pogrom
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When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the town of Wąsosz (Podlachian Voivodeship) was conquered by the second week of war. At the end of September 1939, the area was transferred to Soviet control, but on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht re-entered the town. At this point, there were between 400 and 600 Jews in Wąsosz.[1]
The advancing German combat troops soon left the town.[1] In the second week of the German occupation, a Polish militia was formed in Wąsosz.[1] On July 5, 1941, this unit surrounded Wąsosz to prevent Jews from escaping, and a house to house pogrom began.[1] The Jewish inhabitants of Wąsosz were brutally beaten and murdered, women were raped, and Jewish homes were looted. The corpses of the victims were later buried in a mass grave in a field adjacent to town.
On July 6, 1941, Jewish refugees, who managed to escape the pogrom, arrived to the neighbouring hamlet of Radziłów, but the next day pogrom broke out there as well, and 800 local and refugee Jews were killed. [2] Later, Germans found that only fifteen Jews were left alive in Wąsosz.[1] The pogrom survivors were left in Wąsosz under the supervision of the local gendarmerie until July 1, 1942, and were used for forced labour purposes. On November 2, 1942, they were moved to the Bogosza transit camp, and from there to Auschwitz and Treblinka extermination camps.[1]
The crimes committed at Wąsosz are being investigated by Institute of National Remembrance of Poland.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
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- In-line:
- ^ a b c d e f (1989) in Abraham Wein: Pinkas hakehillot Polin. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.
- ^ Thou Shall Not Kill Rzeczpospolita, no. 159, July 10, 2000: "Nie zabijaj"
- ^ Sprostowanie do artykułu redaktor Anny Bikont „Pięć lat po Jedwabnem” zamieszczonym w „Gazecie Wyborczej” z dnia 4-5.03.2006 r.
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