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1 Sitio(s) de ejecución
Felicja B., born in 1927: "Before the war, Krynki was a deeply integrated community. Only a few Polish Catholic families lived alongside the local Tatar families, but the vast majority of the population was Jewish. The Jewish residents played a central role in the town's daily life, working as tanners, bakers, and restaurant owners. Everyone lived in perfect harmony, completely free of tension or animosity. The children of Krynki all attended the same school, with absolutely no distinctions made between Polish, Jewish, or Tatar pupils. Spiritually, the town was anchored by three synagogues and a Jewish cemetery.
The beginning of the German occupation was marked by heavy bombings. During one raid, a grenade fell directly onto a group of Jewish residents, killing many people. The victims were later buried in the town's Jewish cemetery." (Witness N°YIU1158P, interviewed in Krynki, on September 24, 2020)
"[...] In 1943, 275 citizens of Jewish origin died by execution. The execution sites were located inside the ghetto and across the settlement of Krynki. Residents of the Krynki settlement can confirm this." [Reference: BUWa V-55122-1141/16 | IPN BU 2448/45; Institution: Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Branch Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. Page Number: 192 (Form: EXECUTIONS)]
"One winter day, after the liquidation of the Krynki ghetto, I saw German officials passing by my house in the direction of the local Jewish cemetery, leading a group of 7 people of Jewish origin. I knew some of them. They included Bole and his wife, Stolarski and his wife, the brother of Stolarski's wife, Itkin from the town of Wielka Brzostowica, and one man whom I did not recognize. After a dozen or so minutes, I heard the sound of gunfire. A few minutes later, the gendarmes—or Germans in uniform from another police formation—returned from the direction of the cemetery, but without the Jews. I found out then that they had been shot, and their bodies were buried in the cemetery, where they remain to this day. The Jews had been hiding in the synagogue building in Krynki. Their hiding place was betrayed by tracks left by one of them in the freshly fallen snow." [Source: Main Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland – Institute of National Remembrance. Witness Interrogation Protocol. Name: Konstanty Rutkowski. Born July 17, 1903.]
Krynki is located approximately 47 km (29 mi) east-northeast of Białystok and 25.8 km (16 mi) southwest of Sokółka.
Jewish settlement in Krynki began around the early 17th century, and by 1691, the local Jewish community council (kehilla) established independence over the town and its surroundings. By the late 18th century, Jewish residents constituted the vast majority of the population, forming one of the largest communities in the region.
The town developed into a prominent textile and leather manufacturing hub primarily due to Jewish entrepreneurship. Following the establishment of the first textile factories by Josif Giesl in 1827, the local industry expanded to include 14 tanneries, 8 leather-stitching workshops, and several purse manufactories. Entrepreneurs secured profitable German and Russian market contracts, including army supplies, which attracted migrant laborers from Lithuania and Belarus. By the late 19th century, the population grew to 5,000, with Jewish residents making up 88–90% of the total, though Krynki was eventually economically eclipsed by nearby Białystok. Krynki’s 1921 population of 5,206 included 3,495 Jews.
The community was divided socio-economically by neighborhood, with the main population centered around the market square, the poorest residents were concentrated on Kaukaska Street, and near the northern Jewish cemetery. Communal infrastructure was highly developed, featuring five synagogues, two Hasidic prayer houses, over a dozen cheders, a yeshiva, a hospital, a nursery, and charitable organizations. The town also hosted several Jewish schools and the sports clubs.
During the 1930s, economic stagnation and rising antisemitic violence triggered a major wave of emigration, with many Jewish residents leaving Krynki for the United States or relocating to Palestine under the influence of the Zionist movement.
Following the outbreak of war in September 1939, German troops briefly occupied Krynki before ceding control to the Soviet Union under the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. Soviet rule altered traditional Jewish life by dissolving community institutions and nationalizing private industries. Late in 1939, an influx of Jewish refugees fleeing German occupied western Poland pushed the town's Jewish population past 4000 people. This increase was temporary, as Soviet authorities had deported most of these refugees deep into the USSR by the summer of 1940.
Following the launch of Operation Barbarossa, German forces occupied Krynki on June 28, 1941. Around the time of the occupation, a severe bombing raid killed numerous residents, including many Jews. Felicja B., born in 1927, and interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, recalled that the village head ordered everyone to evacuate to a large field and wear white headscarves. Once there, a bomb landed directly among the Jewish residents who were sitting separately from other locals, killing at least 50 people, though some sources estimate the toll to be as high as 70. According to source 301/3154 from the Assessment and Documentation Department of the Jewish Historical Institute, the victims were buried in a pit at the Jewish cemetery in Krynki.
The new administration, which included a newly appointed local police unit, quickly implemented anti-Jewish policies in Krynki. On June 30, 16 Jewish residents were killed, followed by additional executions over the next month of Jews accused of loyalty to the Soviet regime.
By December 21, 1941, approximately 4500 Jews were ordered into a fenced ghetto spanning from the southwestern to the northeastern part of Krynki. Felicja B., born in 1927, who brought food to the ghetto detainees, stated that the perimeter was guarded by at least four armed Polish men. Ghetto inmates were subjected to forced labor, working in tanning factories, road maintenance, peat digging, or woodcutting.
On April 1, 1942, German forces from the 3rd Company of Police Battalion 91 arrived in Krynki under the command of Wilhelm Ahrens. Following a search of the ghetto for concealed weapons and property, 39 Jewish residents who were deemed too elderly or unable to work were shot. The victims were initially buried within the ghetto grounds, though historical accounts indicate their bodies were later transferred to the town's Jewish cemetery in December 1947.
Following Passover 1942, conditions in the ghetto worsened significantly as an influx of prisoners, including Jews from Brzostowica Wielka, increased the total population to between 5500 and 5700 people. On November 2, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and its inmates were sent to the Kiełbasin transit camp near Grodno, before their final deportation to the Treblinka killing center. Only approximately 350 Jews remained in the ghetto to clean it up. On January 23, 1943, the remaining Jews of Krynki was forced to Sokółka and sent to Auschwitz together with prisoners from Sokółka and Jasionówka. The previous evening, at least 50 Jews managed to escape after receiving a warning from a Polish policeman.
In parallel to these deportations, the SS, Gestapo, and Gendarmerie conducted killings directly inside the town. Archival documents indicate that these operations resulted in the shooting of 275 Jewish citizens in 1943. Their bodies were buried in a pit near Grochowa Street, as well as in various individual burial sites across Krynki. However, the specific location of the Grochowa Street burial site remains unidentified. Additionally, seven Jewish residents discovered in hiding were shot at the Jewish cemetery that same year.
Today, the Jewish cemetery of Krynki is known to contain at least two Holocaust burial sites, which include the victims of the initial bombardment and those reburied there in 1947. While no official monument has been erected at the cemetery for these victims, a memorial plaque affixed to a tree lists the names of 33 Jews killed during the war.
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