Suchowola | Podlaskie Voivodeship

Destruction of Jews in Suchowola

1 Sitio(s) de ejecución

Tipo de lugar antes:

Jewish cemetery

Memoriales:

No

Período de ocupación:

1941-1944

Número de víctimas:

Several dozen

Entrevista del testigo

Stanisława G., born in 1926: "As soon as the Germans arrived, they immediately set up the ghetto, meticulously isolating it from the town's main streets. They forced local workers to build a dense, two-meter-high wooden wall wrapped in barbed wire and guarded by sentry huts so no one could see inside. Into this closed space, they crammed the entire Jewish population of the region, including families from Suchowola, Sztabin, Janów, Dąbrowa, and Korycin. The overcrowding was immediate and severe, with multiple families packed into single houses.

Under these suffocating conditions, terrible epidemics of typhus and scabies quickly took hold of the population. Some of us risked our lives to toss basic food like bread, butter, and cheese over the palisade of the ghetto to help them survive. I remember a Jewish woman, a pharmacist from Janów, who managed to get admitted to the hospital where I was staying for typhus. She was not allowed even that brief respite; the Germans marched into the hospital, dragged her out, and shot her right there in the courtyard. They showed the same ruthlessness to anyone who tried to aid them; my own brother and several others were killed inside the ghetto grounds and buried in its dirt just for smuggling food to them.

Once the Jews were entirely cleared out and deported, the erasure of their presence began. The local municipality took over their homes to sell them off, and all of their personal belongings were sorted out. Public auctions were held to sell off their remaining everyday things, while the Germans stole the most valuable items for themselves. When the war ended, the vibrant community was completely gone. There was not a single Jew left in Suchowola". (Witness N°YIU1151P, interviewed in Suchowola, on September 21, 2020)

Nota histórica

Suchowola is a town in north-eastern Poland in Sokółka County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, 58 km (36 mi) north of Białystok. Jewish settlers likely arrived in Suchowola as early as the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. By 1747, a large wooden synagogue made of squared timber was constructed next to an older building that had previously served as a school and prayer house.

The community grew significantly during the 19th century, driven by agricultural and craft production alongside trade at local markets and fairs. By the late 18th century, Suchowola recorded the highest number of Jewish residents in the Dąbrowa district, although neighboring Korycin, 15 km away, held the highest percentage at 80%. This population growth led to the expansion of the Jewish cemetery located across the Olszanka River in the early 20th century.

Following Poland’s independence, the community continued to expand. The 1921 census recorded 1,262 Jewish residents, a number that grew to 1,521 by 1931, making up 49% of the town's total population. Jewish merchants owned most of the 60 shops surrounding the market square, as well as a mill and two breweries. In 1927, the Jewish Popular Bank was established. During the 1920s, a brick cheder (Jewish elementary school) was built near the brick synagogue. Both buildings survived World War II, and the former cheder stands today as part of the Suchowola School Complex.

According to Yahad-In Unum's witnesses, relations between the different communities varied. Zdzisław L., born in 1933, recalls that while friendships formed between Poles and Jews, economic, political, and religious factors often caused tension between Polish and Jewish residents.

Holocausto por balas en cifras

Shortly after September 17, 1939, Suchowola fell under Soviet occupation. Within days of the launch of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, the town was occupied by German troops.

In July 1941, SS forces and Polish guards initiated up to three waves of anti-Jewish Aktions (pogroms) in Suchowola. The first incident, likely occurring on July 6, involved forcing a group of approximately 35 Jews, 30 Christians, and 2 Red Army soldiers to run a gauntlet in the market square, resulting in the deaths of at least 5 Jewish individuals. The second wave of violence, carried out on July 12, 1941, and remembered as "Black Saturday," saw most Jewish residents locked inside various buildings across the town. During this wave, Jewish women were raped and beaten in the synagogue, religious leaders were assaulted, and sacred texts were burned. At least 12 Jews were drowned in a pond, while another group of 70 Jewish individuals was crammed into a small wooden caretaker's house near the Jewish cemetery and burned alive. Local witnesses interviewed by Yahad-In Unum indicate that the victims' remains were likely buried in the Jewish cemetery. During the third wave of violence, following the likely return of the SS to the town, Polish police forced about 80 Jewish captives to hold a mock funeral for Stalin. A bribe of butter and eggs delivered to the SS commander reportedly halted further atrocities.

Following these waves of violence, a ghetto was established in Suchowola in July 1941, initially confining approximately 2000 detainees, including the local Jewish population as well as refugees from Augustów, Jasionówka, and Dąbrowa Białostocka. From September 1941 through early 1942, German authorities systematically consolidated the regional Jewish population into the Suchowola ghetto. Mass expulsions from Sidra, Janów Sokólski, Jasionówka, Nowy Dwór, Dąbrowa Białostocka, and Lipsk nad Biebrzą ultimately increased the ghetto population to between 5100 and 7000 people. Difficult living conditions, including isolated killings, a typhus epidemic, and the forced transfer of Jews to labor camps, resulted in the deaths of numerous Jewish detainees.

In late February 1942, extreme overcrowding forced the relocation of the ghetto to Kościelna and Szkolna streets. The inhabitants were compelled to enclose the new site with a two meter high barbed wire fence and two gated watchtowers. Following this relocation, the wooden synagogue and the adjoining Bet Midrash were burned to the ground along with most houses in the old ghetto area. The Jewish cemetery was also desecrated, as workers were forced to tear down its stone wall and remove matzevot, the traditional gravestones, to be used as base material for paving roads.

The ghetto liquidation Aktion began on November 1, 1942, when an SS unit sealed the perimeter using German Gendarmes, Polish auxiliary police, and civilian guards. The following day, between 700 and 1000 Jews from Korycin were forced into the crowded enclosure. At 4:00 a.m. on November 5, 1942, the final deportation commenced. SS personnel loaded residents onto horse drawn carts, leaving the sick and elderly behind to be shot on site. Shortly outside of town, the SS forced all adults off the carts to march the remaining 55 kilometers to the Kiełbasin transit camp near Grodno. Ultimately, between 22000 and 29000 Jewish prisoners from the surrounding region were gathered at this location. Beginning on November 9, 1942, these individuals were systematically deported from Kiełbasin to the Auschwitz and Treblinka death camps. The Jewish community of Suchowola was never reconstituted.

In 2010, a partial restoration of the Suchowola Jewish cemetery took place, featuring a new commemorative plaque and the recovery of several matzevot fragments. However, no monument dedicated explicitly to the Jewish residents killed in the town during the German occupation exists today.

Jewishgen

Pueblos cercanos

• Dąbrowa Białostocka
• Krynki

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