Mielec | Subcarpathian Voivodeship

13.09.1939 (probably): On the eve of the Jewish New Year holiday, a few dozen were Jews gathered in the 3 synagogues on the market square. Wehrmacht soldiers from Army Group South (under the command of Major M.) took 50-70 Jews from the 3 synagogues into the butcher’s shop building, whose doors and windows were locked. They began shooting the Jews inside, then poured gasoline on the building and set it on fire. No data on the names of the victims is available.

Source: AGK, GK Survey, Rzeszow Province, "Executions," Mielec. GK, Verdict in the case of Walter T.; GK, Dan. 13/94/73/"W" 1104/; Jellenta S., War Crimes of Field Marshal Mannstein, "For Freedom and the People," 1959, no. 4, p.17.

Mielec is the largest city and the seat of Mielec County. Located in southeastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Mielec lies 49 km (30.4mi) northwest of Rzeszów, the capital of the region, and 221 km (137mi) southeast of Warsaw.

Before the Second World War, Mielec boasted a vibrant Jewish community with a rich history dating back centuries, as records indicate Jewish settlement in the area as early as the 16th century. Over time, this community flourished, making significant contributions to the town’s economic, social, and cultural landscape.

Prior to the war, Mielec’s Jewish population was diverse, engaged in various professions and trades. Many worked as artisans, merchants, and small business owners, while others were involved in the region’s textile industry, which held significant importance. Additionally, the community had its religious and educational institutions, including synagogues, schools, and charitable organizations.

Social life in pre-war Mielec centered around the Jewish community center, where residents gathered for religious services, cultural events, and socializing. Despite occasional tensions with the non-Jewish population, Jews were generally integrated into the town’s fabric.

Emigration from Mielec escalated in the 1930s, with 691 Jews leaving Mielec County for Palestine and 1,555 departing for Western European countries and the United States between 1937 and 1938.

Before the outbreak of the war, Mielec was home to 5,420 Jews, including refugees from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the Free City of Gdansk. This population represented approximately 55% of the town’s total population.

On the eve of the Rosh ha-Shanah holiday, on September 13, 1939, the Germans occupied Mielec. Immediately after seizing the city, they burned more than 80 Jews alive in the local synagogue and ritual slaughterhouse, while 22 were shot at the airport in Berdechów.

Soon after, in the early autumn of 1939, the Germans established a labor camp in Mielec known as Heinkel Flugzeugwerk Mielec, a branch of the Heinkel Aircraft Works. This camp, situated within the premises of the pre-war Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (Polish Aviation Works), housed 500-600 prisoners per barracks, including both Poles and Jews from various regions like Tarnobrzeg, Radomyśl Wielki, and Pustków. Both men and women prisoners worked at the Aviation Works until the camp’s dissolution in July 1944. At that point, with 2,100 prisoners in the camp, most detainees were transferred to the Wieliczka camp, while those who were sick and unable to work were shot on the spot.

Throughout 1940, abductions for forced labor became more frequent, both in Mielec itself and in the surrounding areas. In early 1940, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established in the town.

In 1941, the Germans created a ghetto in Mielec, where all the city’s Jews were grouped together in a special district under German surveillance.

 Witnesses interviewed by Yahad confirm that many shootings of Jewish people took place in the local Jewish cemetery during the entire period of the German occupation.

 The liquidation of the Jewish populace gathered within the Mielec ghetto began on March 9, 1942. Gestapo units executed approximately 300 individuals in a field in the village of Borek, a district of Mielec today, where a memorial now stands. Around 1,000 individuals perished in these actions during this period. The executions in Borek were carried out by gendarmes from the Mielec post, including Josef G. and Karol P. Following the executions, gendarmes dispatched a messenger to the mayor of the nearby Złotniki village, instructing him to assemble individuals for the burial of the victims. Accompanied by a group of over 30 Poles tasked with the burial, 54 young Jews from Chorzelów were also mobilized. The victims were transported by carts to a location slightly off the main road and interred along what are now Swierkowa and Wspólna streets. Additionally, the bodies of those killed during the march, found in roadside ditches, were conveyed to the communal grave via carts.

 Witnesses interviewed by Yahad also indicated an execution site not mentioned in the archives, a sand hill in the former village of Borek, today a district of Mielec. According to the witnesses, four Jews, two women and two men, caught on a train bound for Krakow, were shot and buried on this sand hill.

Subsequently, on March 13, the deportation of the remaining Jewish population began, spanning five days. While the youth were dispatched to labor camps in Pustków, around 500 others were transported to neighboring ghettos, ultimately meeting their fate in the Bełżec extermination camp. Mielec thus became the first city within the General Government to be declared "judenrein" – ’free of Jews’ by the Germans. Historians estimate that about 300 Mielec Jews survived until the end of the war.

https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/kolbuszowa/mielec/mielec.html