Michałowo | Podlaskie Voivodeship

A pre-1939 map of Michałowo, co-created by Nina G., born in 1933, featuring all shops, banks, workshops, and factories along with the names of their pre-war owners. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum A pre-1939 map of Michałowo, co-created by Nina G., born in 1933, featuring all shops, banks, workshops, and factories along with the names of their pre-war owners. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum A photo of the remains of the synagogue at 2 Wąska Street, destroyed in 1944 (top). A sketch of the synagogue (bottom) from an album co-authored by Nina G., born in 1933. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum A sign marking the site of the Jewish cemetery in Michałowo, which reads: “Passerby, respect the resting place of the dead”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Established in the 19th c., the 0.99-acre Jewish cemetery in Michałowo lies 1 km west of town near Krynica. Around 25 matzevot survived. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Nina G., born in 1933: “Before the war, Michałowo’s two middle-aged rabbis, including Saul Margolis, were well-known figures who both raised adult daughters within the community”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Nina G., born in 1933: “The persecution of Jews intensified when German forces arrived in June 1941, following their attack on the Soviets. They immediately imposed severe restrictions on the Jewish population”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Nina G., born in 1933: “During the ghetto liquidation, two Mielnicki boys escaped the wagons. Failing to find partisans, they were subsequenltly caught and shot in the forest behind the German cemetery”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Nina G., born in 1933: “A Jewish family from Michałowo, who owned a local factory, survived the war after being deported to Siberia by the Soviets.” ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Nina G., born in 1933: “After the war, a Jewish man named Laznik often visited me. Together with a German woman named Herta and a Polish man, we created a map and wrote our a book about our town’s history.” ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Janina G., born in 1930: “There were 12 factories in Michałowo before the war. My father worked in a Jewish-owned factory, and my mother worked in a German-owned one.” ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Janina G., born in 1930: “My family had to move, and Jews were put in our house because it stood inside the ghetto. Surrounded by a former Soviet prison fence, it was patrolled from the outside”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Janina G., born in 1930: “Initially, only men were confined to the ghetto, while women and children remained at home. One day, they were all forced onto wagons and deported”. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum The approximate location of the killing site in the Kosaczewo Forest, where 100-300 Jews were murdered in the spring of 1943. The Jewish cemetery is located in the heart of the forest. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum

Destruction of Jews in Michałowo

1 Sitio(s) de ejecución

Tipo de lugar antes:
Kosaczewo Forest surrounding the Jewish cemetery
Memoriales:
No
Período de ocupación:
1941-1944
Número de víctimas:
Between 100 and 300

Entrevista del testigo

Janina G., born in 1930: "Before the war, Michałowo was a diverse town with twelve factories. My father worked at a Jewish-owned factory, and my mother at a German-owned one. Catholics, Orthodox, and Jews attended the same school. I still remember my classmate Belda, the Jewish baker on Gródecka Street, and Kalischinski the shoemaker. We had two wooden synagogues and a rabbi who lived nearby. Years after the war, the rabbi wrote to my father asking about a buried box of photographs, but we never found it.

In 1939, Soviet forces replaced the Germans, making our schools Russian and removing religious crosses. When they retreated in 1941, they burned down several buildings. Local residents gathered to guard a Jewish-owned mill from the returning Germans, and during this watch, my father was killed. Under German occupation, schools and factories closed. Local Polish collaborators joined the police wearing red armbands, and Jews were forced to wear yellow stars. The Germans even killed a mentally ill Jewish man, who was buried in the Jewish cemetery. Eventually, our family was evicted from our home on Gródecka Street because it fell within the designated ghetto area. Initially, only Jewish men were confined inside the ghetto, which was surrounded by a wooden fence—a former Soviet prison perimeter—while women and children remained home. Then, they were suddenly loaded onto wagons and deported." (Witness N°YIU604P, interviewed in Michałowo, on June 23, 2016)

Nota histórica

Michałowo is a town in Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in northeastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Michałowo.

 

Jewish settlers first arrived in Michałowo during the first half of the 19th century, drawn by the town's booming textile and tanning industries. Although they initially settled without official permission, they quickly integrated into the local economy, focusing on trade and manufacturing. It was not until 1903 that the Jewish population finally secured the legal right to reside in the area. A notable example of their economic impact was a textile factory owned by Lipa Cytron, which operated until it was destroyed by a fire in 1928.

 

The heart of Jewish life was concentrated around the market square and the area surrounding today's Sienkiewicza Street. This neighborhood housed two wooden synagogues (the earliest dating back to 1890), a school, a communal bathhouse, and the rabbi's residence. Prominent spiritual leaders over the years included Rabbi Natan Nate Kamchi and the town's final rabbi, Saul Margolis. Jewish families also populated several other local streets, including Fabryczna, Gródecka, Białostockia, Wąska, and Policyjna (currently 22 Lipca Street). Demographic records from 1921 highlight the town's diverse makeup: out of 2,176 total inhabitants, the population comprised 887 Jews, 534 Belarusian Eastern Orthodox followers, 458 Polish Roman Catholics, 291 German Protestants, and 6 individuals of other faiths. However, according to witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, key administrative positions were held exclusively by Poles, and holding such offices required converting to Catholicism.

 

By 1937, just before the outbreak of war, the number of Jewish residents in Michałowo stood at 732.

 

Holocausto por balas en cifras

During the invasion of September 1939, Michałowo was among the easternmost points reached by the German army. Shortly after, in mid-September, German troops handed the town over to Soviet control in compliance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. On the eve of Operation Barbarossa, on June 21, 1941, twenty Jewish residents, mostly prominent factory owners and their families, were deported to Siberia. On June 27, 1941, Michałowo was reoccupied by a Wehrmacht unit.

 

When they reoccupied the town, German forces implemented anti-Jewish measures, including compulsory wearing of distinctive signs, a prohibition on using sidewalks, and forced labor, such as burying people who had been killed. According to Janina G., born in 1930, a mentally ill Jewish man was among the first victims, and his body was buried in the Jewish cemetery by fellow residents. The German military commander immediately ordered the confinement of Michałowo's Jewish population to a temporary holding ghetto. This restricted zone was established in the fire-damaged center of town, encompassing Sienkiewicz, Gródek, Leśna, and Fabryczna streets. Enclosed by a barbed-wire fence and guarded by police, the ghetto held approximately 1,500 people in total, comprising local residents, several hundred Jews brought from Zabłudów, and between 575 and 600 individuals from other areas. Around early September 1941, the newly appointed German Amtskommissar in Gródek Białostocki ordered the release of the Jews from the ghetto, allowing them to return to their homes. However, many returned to find their properties occupied by Polish and Belarusian neighbors whose own dwellings had been destroyed by fire.

 

On November 2, 1942, the Jewish population of Michałowo was relocated to a transit camp on the southern outskirts of Białystok. Conducted by an SS detachment, the Aktion relied on requisitioned wagons driven by local villagers and residents from surrounding areas. This relocation was part of a massive, coordinated SS operation involving the simultaneous liquidation of nearly every provincial ghetto across the entire Białystok District. The Michałowo Jews were held at the Białystok transit camp for three to ten weeks before being deported to the Treblinka killing center.

 

Following the deportation, the Gendarmes hunted for hiding fugitives and murdered the two teenage sons of Mielnicki, a former mill owner. While archival records indicate that the victims were buried in a meadow near the Jewish cemetery, a local witness interviewed by Yahad, Nina G., born in 1933, stated they were shot in the forested area behind the German cemetery. Local farmers were subsequently forced to bury the victims near the roadside where they were killed.

 

Furthermore, according to available archival sources, between 100 and 300 additional Jews, including women and children, were shot in the Kosaczewo Forest in the spring of 1943, though it remains unknown whether they originated from Michałowo or other ghettos. During a research trip to the area, the approximate location of this killing site was positioned at the Jewish cemetery of Michałowo, which lies in the heart of the forest. Yahad nevertheless remains open to additional sources or testimonies that could help identify the exact location of this killing site.

 

Jewishgen

https://cdp.jewishgen.org/eastern-europe/poland/michalowo

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