Jasionówka | Podlaskie Voivodeship

Questionnaire on Mass Executions and Mass Graves

1. Date and location of the execution: January 24, 1943, in Jasionówka.

2. Type of execution (shooting, hanging, or other): Shooting.

3. Information about the executed victims:

o Poles, Jews, foreigners: Jews

o Number of people executed: approximately 300

o Origin of the victims: all were residents of Jasionówka

o Name, age, profession, and address: unknown; data unavailable; currently, there are no Jews in the commune of Kalinówka, as all survivors left in April 1945.

4. Was the execution based on any accusations, or was it a reprisal or other type of order?

o Unknown motive

5. Who carried out the execution? Gendarmerie, Gestapo, SS, police, Wehrmacht?

o Gendarmerie, Gestapo, SS, police (approx. 70 people)

6. Are the names of the perpetrators known? If so, list them:

o Names unknown; they arrived by car from an unknown location and left immediately after the execution.

7. Were the bodies burned or destroyed in another way? If so, where?

o No; the bodies were buried in the Jewish cemetery.

8. Where were the bodies buried? Exact location:

o Jewish cemetery in Jasionówka

9. Description of the grave(s): dimensions, estimated number of victims per grave:

o Two mass graves:

1. 5m × 2m — approx. 20 people

2. 3m × 2m — approx. 15 people

10. Has there been an exhumation of the bodies? Was a protocol made at the grave site?

• No

11. Are there any reasons to request a future exhumation?

• No

[RG-15.019M Reel #1 (pp. 405–404 in the PDF); Village of Jasionówka, Białystok county and voivodeship; Testimony of Jan Fiedorowicz, 47 years old, resident of the village of Kalinówka (Białystok county), profession unknown, dated September 25, 1945. He bases his testimony on his own observations as well as those of other inhabitants of the commune.]

Jasionówka is a village in Mońki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Jasionówka. It lies approximately 16 km (10 mi) east of Mońki and 33 km (21 mi) north of the regional capital Białystok.

The first Jews probably appeared in Jasionówka toward the end of the 17th century. The Jews were known for their craft skills as well as their passion and talent for trade. The community, which had been dependent on the Jewish community of Tykocin since its founding, became independent around the middle of the 18th century. In the 1930s, Jasionówka was home to 1,879 residents, of whom 1,279 were Jews. Bronisław P., born in 1923, and interviewed by Yahad-In Unum in 2014, recalled that many Jews lived in Jasionówka, Korycin, and Knyszyn. According to Bronisław, the Jewish community in Jasionówka was larger than the non-Jewish population. They had two synagogues—one wooden and one made of stone—two cemeteries, and a rabbi named Bielicki who lived in the village. Bronisław attended school with Jewish children but remembered that they also had their own Jewish school in the village. He also recalled Jewish merchants trading horses and cows, while others ran shops in the village. Another Yahad-In Unum witness, Zofia G., born in 1918, recalled that many Jewish children attended the Polish school because it was free, while the Jewish school was paid. She remembered her first and dearest friend, Hana Radzik, whose family owned a glue factory in Jasionówka. Hana survived the war and later emigrated to Palestine, where she lived to old age. Another of her classmates, Rochla, also survived the war and emigrated to Palestine.

In September 1939, on the eve of the WWII, over 1,500 lived in Jasionówka.

In September 1939, Jasionówka was briefly occupied by German troops before being taken over by the Red Army. The Germans reoccupied the town on June 27, 1941, marking the beginning of escalating violence against the Jewish population.

Despite the efforts of a local priest, Cyprian Łozowski, a pogrom immediately broke out in Jasionówka with the participation of local inhabitants. Approximately 70 Jews were murdered, and many of their homes were looted and set on fire. In July 1941, another pogrom took place, during which around 50 people—including Jews and Belarusians—were killed. Shortly afterward, toward the end of 1941, a significant portion of the Jewish community was forcibly expelled to Suchowola.

In the autumn of 1942, a ghetto was established. Approximately 400 refugees from nearby towns were relocated in the already overcrowded Jewish district of Jasionówka.

On January 24–25, 1943, the ghetto was surrounded by German gendarmes. Around 2,000 Jews then residing in Jasionówka were gathered in the town square and transported by sled to the train station in Knyszyn. During this operation and in the period that followed, approximately 300 people were killed or froze to death, including 30 who were killed in Jasionówka on the day of the deportation.

Many details about the Aktion in Jasionówka have been provided by local residents, including those who were requisitioned to transport Jews to the train station in Knyszyn, as documented in interviews conducted by Yahad–In Unum. Bronisław P., born in 1923, was assigned to take a mother and her three children by sled to the train station in Knyszyn. He recalls that the temperature that day dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius, and the Jews were not allowed to move or warm themselves in any way. Many of them froze to death while still gathered in the square, as well as on the way to Knyszyn. The Germans threw the bodies of the frozen dead into the wagons alongside the living.

Three days later, the train reached the transit camp in Białystok, where prisoners were denied food and water. Eventually, they were deported to the Treblinka killing center and murdered in gas chambers.

Alojzy B., born in 1924, who transported three elderly women by sled that day, recalled that some people managed to escape on the way to the station. According to historical sources, around 300 individuals escaped during the transport, and another 100 avoided deportation by hiding in bunkers within Jasionówka. Some were shot during nighttime escape attempts, while others successfully fled to the forest or found shelter with local farmers. However, most of those who escaped were eventually captured and killed by the Germans.

After the Red Army liberated the area, approximately 80 Jewish survivors returned to Jasionówka. All of them later emigrated to Palestine or Western Europe.

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