Osielec | Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Osielec is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jordanów, within Sucha County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Before the Second World War, it was a small, close-knit rural settlement composed primarily of wooden houses.

According to testimonies collected by Yahad - In Unum, three Jewish families lived in Osielec prior to the war: the Celam, Szpraj, and Krygier families. They owned small shops and were well integrated into the daily life of the village. Jewish and non-Jewish children attended the same local school, located behind the church. Among them was Zylka Szpraj, who studied alongside Polish classmates. The Celam family had two children, Lodzia and Poldek, while the Krygier family had no children.

The Jewish residents of Osielec maintained close ties with the nearby town of Jordanów, which served as the main center of Jewish communal life in the area. According to interwar demographic data, Jordanów had a population of 1,486 inhabitants, including 238 Jews, representing approximately 16 percent of the total population. The town’s Jewish community maintained communal and religious institutions, including a synagogue and a cemetery, which also served the Jewish residents of Osielec.

Osielec, located in the Jordanów region, was occupied by German troops in early September 1939. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, five Jewish residents of the village were murdered there during the occupation, while others were expelled to Maków Podhalański.

Jan D., born in 1930, recalled a Jewish family who lived in an apartment above their shop near the bridge and the local school. According to his testimony, Gestapo officers arrived one day and ordered the family to come downstairs. They were shot immediately after leaving the building. The Krygier family, who lived next door to the witness, were reportedly taken away and murdered elsewhere. However, available testimonies do not provide sufficient information to determine the exact killing sites or burial locations of these victims.

Not all Jewish residents of Osielec perished. Some survived the occupation. Marianna K., born in 1926, recalled that the Celam family entrusted their belongings to her relatives, who hid them in their attic for safekeeping before the family fled to hide in the forest. She confirmed that both Celam children, Poldek and Lodzia, survived the war.

Witness accounts also indicate that an unknown number of Jews were murdered in nearby localities and subsequently buried in the Osielczyk Forest. The burial site, located in an area known as “Baranie Rogi,” was visited by Jan D. several days after the interment. He remembered seeing a freshly covered pit marked by a large mound of earth approximately 1.5 meters high. According to local information, the victims’ bodies had been transported to the forest by truck.

This account is corroborated by Marianna K., who also observed the site and estimated the pit to be approximately ten steps in length. Based on these dimensions, the burial site likely contains numerous victims.

Today, the site remains deep within the forest near Osielec. It is difficult to access, bears no memorial, and remains an unmarked burial place of an unknown number of Jewish victims.