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1 Killing site(s)
Genowefa Z., born in 1930: "When the war started and Mrozy was bombed, we fled, returning on September 9 to find almost nothing left. The rabbi and his family stayed until 1942, when the deportations began. Food was scarce and Jewish shops were closed; everyone was starving. My mother used to make me lard sandwiches. Once, I offered one to Rivka. Her mother said she wouldn’t eat it, but Rivka was so hungry that she ate it anyway.
During the deportation Aktion in 1942, when I was 12, my 15-year-old friend Rysiek urged us to go and see what was happening. We hid in Mrs. Rucińska’s barn, which overlooked the station. Freight trains were waiting, and Jews were being forced inside. German guards flanked both sides of the train, beating them with batons and rifle butts while shouting "Raus, raus!" Mrs. Rucińska scolded us for watching, terrified the Germans would burn her house down. Not all Jews were taken away that day… Some managed to go into hiding.
A year later, Rysiek came to get us after hearing that a column of about 50 Jews, including men, women, and children, was being marched toward the forest. Terrified of the armed Germans and their dogs, we stayed 200 meters away. A trench had been dug in the sand, and the Jews were lined up along both edges. Germans standing behind them fired simultaneously, shooting them into the pit and kicking in anyone who fell on the side. We fled immediately, knowing the Germans would force Polish locals to bury the bodies. When one of them returned, he said it was horrific. The next day, we went back hoping to plant flowers on the grave, but seeing a hand protruding from the sand, we panicked and ran away." (Witness N°YIU497P, interviewed in Mrozy, on August 3, 2015)
"During the occupation, I lived in Mrozy with my parents and was learning a trade. There was a ghetto in Mrozy, which was later liquidated. I do not remember the date. Right after the deportation of the Jews, the gendarmes found several people hidden in the cellar of a house. They were two Jewish families with women and children. The Germans led them through the forest to the Zagańczyk family fields and shot them there. I did not see this. When I found out about it, I went there and saw the corpses of the murdered people lying in the field. I did not count them, but there were several of them. The Germans were no longer there. I left immediately and I do not know who took care of burying them. I know that they were buried in the same spot and lie there to this day.
After some time, I do not remember the date, Jews employed on manorial estates for meadow land-reclamation were brought in. The Jews worked there for a longer period. Later, they were gradually brought in and killed. Once I observed an execution in the Babiański field near the forest.
I saw horse-drawn carts with people arrive in front of the gendarmerie post in Mrozy. The gendarmes came out; they were drunk. They escorted the carts carrying people toward the forest. Pits had already been prepared there; I do not know who dug them. I watched from a distance and hid so as not to be noticed. I was at a distance of about 500 meters on a hill; I did not see the execution itself. I heard shots. The gendarmes had only hand rifles /Mausers/; there were several of them.
When it was all over and the gendarmes left, I approached closely and saw the corpses of the murdered Jews. Some corpses lay in the pit, and others next to the pit. There were several dozen killed people here. I had seen these Jews up close before, when they were brought on carts and when they were later led under the forest, passing under the windows of my apartment. The Jews were emaciated and weak. They were staggering on their feet from hunger; some on the cart did not have the strength to get down; they were ragged and barefoot.
I was not present during the burial of the bodies. They were poorly covered with earth. I heard later that Jews were taken to this place several more times to be killed, and their bodies were deposited in the same pits, but I did not see this myself.
After this execution that I observed, I often happened to pass near the grave. Because the bodies were poorly covered, dogs would dig them up at night and tear the bodies apart. I saw severed human hands scattered near the grave. Crows were gathering.
When the pits were filled with corpses after some time, they were covered with a thick layer of earth and have remained so to this day. In this field, the owner Fabiański planted a forest a few years later. In the forest, the places where the bodies were buried can still be seen today, as the ground there collapsed and formed hollows. Just yesterday I was there and saw three hollows." [District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Warsaw; WITNESS INTERROGATION RECORD; Warsaw, May 31, 1976; Interrogator: J. Krężlewicz – Vice-Prosecutor of the Voivodeship Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, delegated to the District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Warsaw. Personal details of the witness: Surname and given name: Stanisław Kiesio; Date and place of birth: July 25, 1925, Rudnik-Cegłów; Place of residence: Mrozy, 65 Pokoju Street, Siedlce Voivodeship]
"Mrozy, in the Siedlce Voivodeship, east of Mińsk Mazowiecki: Ghetto. It held the Jewish population from the vicinity of Mińsk Mazowiecki (among others, from Nov 1941 — 138 people from Cegłów) as well as from Pabianice, Kalisz, and Puławy; in total approx. 1,000 people. During the liquidation of the ghetto in the autumn of 1942, the Nazis deported its residents to the extermination camp at Treblinka." [source: AGK, Kolekcja „Ob”, sygn. 177. „Biuletyn ŻIH” 1952, nr 1 (3), s. 120, 121; Eksterminacja Żydów na ziemiach polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej. Zbiór dokumentów, Warszawa 1957, s. 278.]
Mrozy is a town in Mińsk County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Mrozy. It is located approximately 58 km (36 mi) east of Warsaw.
Jewish settlement in Mrozy likely began in the late 19th century following the opening of the Warsaw–Saint Petersburg railway in 1866. Rather than forming an independent community, the local Jewish population maintained strong ties to nearby Kałuszyn, sharing both their origins and administrative structure, which is also reflected in their joint memorial book. Residents primarily settled in the areas of Wola Kałuska and Dębkowizna, establishing a dynamic presence in trade, craftsmanship, brokerage, and services. They operated various local businesses, including grocery stores, bakeries, butcher shops, a pharmacy, a barbershop, a teahouse, a tavern, a soda water factory, and a beer wholesale depot. Although Mrozy lacked formal political organizations, the local youth remained highly engaged in current affairs and supported a wide spectrum of political movements, ranging from Zionism and Revisionism to Bundism, Labor Zionism, and Communism. The nearby Kałuszyn Forest served as a popular gathering spot where young people held discussions and joint political rallies with activists from Kałuszyn. In 1921, the village of Mrozy had a total population of 508, of which 306 were Jewish.
Following heavy bombardment, Mrozy was occupied by German troops on September 12, 1939, establishing a new local administration alongside a gendarmerie post. Anti-Jewish measures were swiftly implemented across the town, and a Judenrat (Jewish council) was created. By August 1940, the Jewish population of Mrozy had grown to 507 individuals, reflecting an influx of displaced persons from Kalisz, Pabianice, Ostrzeszów, and Puławy. By November 1940, the number of Jewish residents reached 555, consisting of 312 local inhabitants and 243 refugees.
An open ghetto was created in Mrozy in November 1941. Following the relocation of Jewish residents from smaller surrounding settlements, including 138 individuals from Cegłów, a strict prohibition against leaving the ghetto boundaries was imposed under penalty of death. A number of ghetto inmates was subjected to forced labor, primarily at the local railway station or on land drainage projects. According to some sources, the ghetto population reached approximately 1,000 before its liquidation, which likely occurred in September 1942 when the Jewish inhabitants were deported to the Treblinka killing center. The operation was carried out by the local gendarmerie. Following the deportation, at least two Jewish families caught in hiding were shot.
A small group of Jewish individuals was likely spared during the deportation and retained for drainage work in the labor camp, alongside escapees from the surrounding area. According to some sources, approximately 200 of these laborers were shot in the fall of 1942 on land owned by the Fabiański family across the course of several mass shootings. An additional group of Jewish victims was murdered at the same location in the fall of 1943.
This information is corroborated by testimonies from local witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum. Jadwiga M., born in 1928, witnessed the shooting of approximately 90 Jewish individuals near the forest edge in the early fall. Observing from behind a barn around 50 to 70 meters away, she recalled hearing continuous gunfire as gendarme forces fired upon victims attempting to flee in all directions. The gendarmes shot them individually until the last person wearing a light coat collapsed. Another witness, Genowefa Z., born in 1930, observed the shooting of an estimated 50 Jewish men, women, and children at the same site one year after the main deportation operation. According to her account, the victims were lined up along both edges of a trench dug in the sandy ground before being shot by German forces. Both witnesses noted that following the killings, local Polish residents were requisition to burry the victims’ bodies on the site.
Today, the area of the killing site in Mrozy is overgrown with trees. During the research trip conducted by Yahad - In Unum in 2015, no monument had yet been erected on the site. However, a memorial was installed in 2018 with the support of the Masovian Voivodeship Office. The monument bears the following inscription: "Here lie Jews of blessed memory murdered during the Holocaust. In the fall of 1942 approximately 200 people, including men, women and children from the work camp in Kuflewo and the liquidated ghettos in Mrozy and Kałuszyn, were killed in mass executions. In the fall of 1943 several dozen young men were murdered. May their souls find eternal life."
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