The Wąsosz pogrom was the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
mass murder of
Jewish residents of
Wąsosz
Wąsosz (formerly german: Herrnstadt) is a town in Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district ( gmina) called Gmina Wąsosz. It lies approximately south-east of Góra, and north ...
in
German-occupied Poland
German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration.
The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...
, on 5 July 1941. The massacre was carried out by local Polish residents without participation of Germans.
Circumstances surrounding the pogrom
When
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
invaded
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
in 1939, the village of
Wąsosz
Wąsosz (formerly german: Herrnstadt) is a town in Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district ( gmina) called Gmina Wąsosz. It lies approximately south-east of Góra, and north ...
(
Podlaskie Voivodeship) was taken by the Germans in the second week of the war.
At the end of September, in accordance with the
German–Soviet Boundary Treaty, the area was transferred by the Nazis to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
The Soviet Union
invaded Poland from the East two weeks earlier, on 17 September 1939, pursuant to the secret protocol of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...
. The
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
overran 52.1% of territory of Poland with over 13,700,000 inhabitants. The Soviet occupation zone included 5.1 million ethnic Poles (ca. 38%), 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. There were also 336,000 refugees who escaped to
eastern Poland
Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships.
The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also econo ...
from areas already occupied by Germany – most of them Polish Jews numbering at around 198,000.
[. ''Also in:'' Trela-Mazur 1997, ''Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie'', ]Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
.
Following the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union, German
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
re-entered Wąsosz on 22 June 1941.
The Jews of the town, at that time, were 40% of the town's population some 500 people.
Pogrom
On the night of 4 and 5 July 1941, a small group of men armed with axes and iron clubs murdered several dozens of the Jewish inhabitants of Wąsosz. The killings were performed in a brutal manner, regardless of the victims' age or sex.
[Shared History, Divided Memory: Jews and Others in Soviet-occupied Poland 1939-1941](_blank)
edited by Elazar Barkan, Elizabeth A. Cole, Kai Struve, essay authored by Andrzej Zbikowski, pages 349-350, Leipziger Universitätsverlag The corpses of the murdered Jews were thrown into a large pit that was dug outside the town.
According to the
Institute of National Remembrance
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
's investigation, the number of victims is at least 70.
According to a report date 14 July 1941 by German security division 221/B "After the Russian withdrawal, the Polish populace of Wąsosz filled a barn with Jews, and killed them all before the German force entered
he town
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
.
Aftermath
Menachem Finkielsztejn, a resident of
Radziłów, described in a post-war testimony how Poles from Wąsosz arrived in Radziłów on 6 July saying that "It was immediately known that those who came had previously killed in a horrible manner, using pipes
and knives, all the Jews in their own town, not sparing even women or little children". However, they were chased away by the local townfolk of Radziłów, who then massacred the Jews of Radziłów on 7 June, killing the entire community except for 18 survivors. According to Andrzej Żbikowski the townfolk of Radziłów drove away the Wąsosz killers so that they could kill and steal the property of the Jews for themselves.
Fifteen surviving Jews remained in the town until 1 July 1942, when they were moved to the Milbo estate where some 500 Jews were employed in various works. In November 1942 the survivors were moved to the
Bogusze transit camp and from there onward to
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
and
Auschwitz concentration camp.
In 1951, Marian Rydzewski was tried and acquitted for participating pogrom before a communist court.
IPN investigation
The crimes committed in Wąsosz were investigated by
Institute of National Remembrance
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
of Poland, under the direction of the IPN prosecutor Radosław Ignatiew who earlier investigated the atrocities in Jedwabne.
In 2014, Polish Jewish leaders were reportedly divided regarded exhumation of the bodies of the Jewish victims. Some, such as Poland's chief rabbai
Michael Schudrich
Michael Joseph Schudrich (born June 15, 1955) is an American rabbi and the current Chief Rabbi of Poland. He is the oldest of four children of Rabbi David Schudrich and Doris Goldfarb Schudrich.
Biography
Born in New York City, Schudrich lived i ...
are opposed due to the dignity of the dead. Others, such as Piotr Kadicik the president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, support the exhumation.
[Wasosz Pogrom Mass Murder Investigation Sharply Divides Jewish Leaders](_blank)
5 October 2014, NBC NewsPolish Jews Split Over Plan to Exhume Victims of 1941 Massacre
Haaretz (JTA), 18 September 2014
In 2015, while on vacation, Ignatiew was removed from the investigation and replaced with Malgorzata Redos-Ciszewska. The exhumation was not carried out, and the investigation was closed in 2016. The IPN did not identify any additional perpetrators beyond two Polish men sentenced for their actions shortly after World War II.[Polish Institute Stops Investigation Into WWII Murder of 70 Jews](_blank)
JPost (JTA), 14 March 2016
References
The Crime and the Silence
Anna Bikont, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
See also
* Jedwabne pogrom
The Jedwabne pogrom was a massacre of Polish Jews in the town of Jedwabne, German-occupied Poland, on 10 July 1941, during World War II and the early stages of the Holocaust. At least 340 men, women and children were murdered, some 300 of whom ...
* Tykocin pogrom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasosz Pogrom
Poland in World War II
Mass murder in 1941
Holocaust massacres and pogroms in Poland
July 1941 events