Bzite | Lublin Voivodeship

/ Zofia N., born in 1932:” One woman who managed to jump off the train came to our house. We gave her a dress because she had nothing else but underwear. Two days later a German arrived and took her away. ” © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum The place of a former Jewish labor camp in Bzite. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum The witness took Yahad-In Unum team to the burial places of 3 Jewish women who attempted to escape from the train going to Belzec. © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum One of three places where the witness’ father buried the body of a Czechoslovakian woman. (Execution site n°1) © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum One of three places where the witness’ father buried the body of a Czechoslovakian woman. (Execution site n°2) © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum One of three places where the witness’ father buried Jewish victims. (Execution site n°3) © Cristian Monterroso /Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Czechoslovakian Jews in Bzite

3 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Railroad
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1939-1944
Number of victims:
3

Witness interview

Zofia N., born in 1932: ”I remember how two Jewish women jumped out of a moving train. They were taken by freight cars. One was shot by a German on the spot, the other one managed to escape. She came to our house and my mother gave her a dress, because they were all undressed.” (Witness n°756, interviewed in Krasnystaw, on October 9, 2017).

Historical note

Bzite is a village located about 55 km southeast of Lublin. Little is known about the Jewish community in Bzite from historical sources. According to Yahad’s witness, several Jewish families lived in the village, alongside Catholic ones.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

The village was occupied by the Germans in September 1939. According to the testimony interviewed by Yahad shortly upon the occupation the Germans established a Jewish labor camp in a house in Bzite. It was fenced with barbed wire. The Jewish inmates were forced to extract and gather peat. Unfortunately, there is no exact information about what happened to the Jews from the camp, but most probably they were taken on foot to Belzec where they were later murdered. However, with the help of the local witness Yahad was able to identify the location of three isolated graves where three Czechoslovakian women were shot.  From the words of the eyewitness we know that these women, dressed only in underwear, escaped from the train going in the direction of Belzec. The first woman was caught and shot on the spot, the second one managed to flee and find shelter in a witness’s house. She stayed two nights, but then was denounced and Germans in grey uniform came to the house to take her away. Later, the witness’s father found the corpses of the tree women and buried them in separate pits along the railroads. 

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