Średnica-Jakubowięta | Podlaskie Voivodeship

Czesław G., born in 1934: “There weren’t any Jews in my village. However, in Wysokie Mazowieckie, there was a vibrant Jewish community with its own synagogue located right in the town center as well as a cemetery. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Czesław G., born in 1934: “During the German occupation, transports of Jews passed through our village toward Warsaw. Grazing cows 600m from the tracks, I often saw these trains carrying victims from Białystok ghetto.” ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Czesław G., born in 1934, witnessed, as a young boy, the murder of two Jews near the railway tracks after they jumped off a train bound for Warsaw. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Czesław G., born in 1934: "One day, I saw Germans shoot a Jewish woman and boy after they’d jumped off a train. That boy’s death marked me for life." ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum Czesław G., born in 1934: "After the killings, the Germans ordered a passing farmer to bury the victims. They remain buried together by the tracks." ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum The killing and burial site of three Jews, a couple and their child, killed by the Germans following an attempt to jump from a train heading to Treblinka. ©Cristian Monterroso/Yahad – In Unum

Destruction of Jews in Średnica-Jakubowięta

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Near the railway
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
3

Witness interview

Czesław G., born in 1934: “There weren’t any Jews in Średnica-Maćkowięta, where I lived before the war. They lived in Wysokie Mazowieckie, which is about 11 km from my village. During the German occupation, trains carrying Jews passed through. I lived about 600 meters from the tracks, so I quite often saw these transports while grazing cows; they were mostly travelling from Białystok towards Warsaw. Every 5 to 6 cars, there were Germans guarding so that no one would escape, but Jews still tried to jump out of the wagons. Most of them were killed by the Germans and their bodies were buried along the tracks." (Witness N°YIU611P, interviewed in Szepietowo-Żaki, on June 25, 2016)

Historical note

Średnica-Jakubowięta is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Szepietowo, within Wysokie Mazowieckie County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in northeastern Poland. It lies approximately 50 km (31 mi) southwest of the regional capital, Białystok.

According to Czesław G., born in 1934 in nearby Średnica Maćkowięta, both villages were inhabited exclusively by Catholics. However, several surrounding localities, including Szepietowo, Wysokie Mazowieckie and the city of Białystok itself, were home to numerous Jewish residents.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

During the German occupation of Poland, the adjacent villages of Średnica-Jakubowięta and Średnica-Maćkowięta, located near Szepietowo, were situated directly along the strategic Białystok–Warsaw railway line (formerly the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway). Following the launch of Operation Reinhard and the liquidation of regional ghettos, most notably the Białystok ghetto, this railway corridor served as a primary transit route for Nazi deportations. Holocaust transport trains continuously carried tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children along this line directly to the Treblinka killing center. Because the tracks passed just hundreds of meters from residential homes and pastures, local villagers frequently witnessed these deportations, attempts by victims to leap from moving cattle cars, and the immediate shootings of escapees by the Germans along the railway embankments.

Eyewitness accounts detail the frequent gunfire from German guards positioned on the trains to prevent escapes. Czesław G., born in 1934, interviewed by a Yahad - In Unum team in 2016, witnessed a killing of three Jewish individuals, a man, a woman, and a young child aged four or five, who had jumped from a passing transport. The man died on landing, while the woman was wounded and the child was uninjured. Shortly thereafter, three German soldiers traveling by bicycle from the direction of nearby Szepietowo encountered the group at a railway crossing and shot the woman and her child. Under German directive, a local farmer, with assistance from other residents and a railway worker, buried the three victims in an embankment pit near the crossing, where their bodies reportedly remain to this day. No memorial stands at the site to commemorate the victims.

Other links

Nearby villages

To support the work of Yahad-in Unum please consider making a donation

Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?

Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17