Krasnosielc, 1939

Krasnosielc
6 September, 1939

The murder of Jews in the Krasnocielc synagogue is somewhat atypical of the Holocaust period.

On 6 September 1939, a group of fifty Jewish men were ordered to work repairing a bridge. After they had completed the work, the Jews were locked for the evening in the synagogue. That night, an SS man and a military policeman came into the synagogue and shot all the men to death.

Both German men were arrested and brought to trial. The first was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail. The second was sentenced to nine years in prison, though this was eventually reduced to three years upon appeal.

The Jews in the synagogue were buried nearby by a neighbor., Mr. Zhilinsky. He described "how the Germans took the bodies of the murdered Jews out of the synagogue and threw them in the ditches beside it and covered them with Torah books, poured some combustible material and set it all on fire." (Essay by David Shachar)

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