Witness
Adolf S.
Country
Poland
Birthdate and Birthplace
1928, Siemnice
Year of video recording
2012
InEvidence link (YahadMap)
Know moreSiemnice, POLAND
Siemnice is a small village in the Tomaszów Lubelski region, 107km south-east of Lublin, the regional capital. Before the war, a small Jewish community lived in Siemnice. Adolf remembers three Jewish families. From the very start of the war, the town was occupied – first by the Soviets then the Germans. A portion of the Jews were deported to the Belzec death camp while others were shot onsite in Siemnice. A deposition found in Polish archives references a shooting in 1942 of approximately 70 Jews that included children and elderly people. Adolf witnessed a shooting of thirty Jewish men, women and children.
Adolf brought the Yahad – In Unum team to the execution site in Siemnice. There is neither a plaque nor a monument there. In 2005, the bodies were exhumed in order for the bones to be buried in the Jewish cemetery in Komarów.
Glossary
Folwark
An agricultural domain.
Gestapo
The Gestapo, the state secret police, was responsible hunting down those people considered enemies of the Nazi Reich, such as members of the resistance or Jews. They often relied on local auxiliaries in occupied countries.
Soltys
The soltys was the village chief in rural zones. During the occupation, the Germans often named the soltys themselves.
The Anders army
This was a Polish army led by General Władysław Anders. It was set up following an agreement between the Poles and the Soviets in August 1941. Its goal was to fight the Nazis with allied help.
Questionnaire
Historical notes
The village of Siemnice is located approximately 129 kilometers southeast of the city of Lublin. A census conducted by the Polish government in 1921 recorded nine Jews living in Siemnice. [...]
During World War II, it was one of twenty-five villages which belonged to the municipality of Rachanie, then located in Zamość County, within the Lublin District of occupied Poland.
Siemnice was occupied by the Germans on September 13, 1939. After a brief interim period of Soviet control, the village returned to German authority on September 27. A census conducted at the end of 1940 recorded eight Jews living in the village. Jewish refugees from surrounding towns and villages (e.g.Tyszowce, Michałow, Podworzec, Belz and Sokal) joined the local Jewish community from Siemnice. This caused the Jewish population in the village to grow unofficially to several dozen, as the plight and the persecution of the Jews increased.
It is unclear when exactly the Germans sent eighteen Jewish families from Siemnice to work in a manor house in Celestynów, owned by the Holtzer family, located over a kilometer south-east of Siemnice. The Jews worked on the repair of drainage ditches and gardening on the grounds of the estate.[4]
[1] https://archiwum.rp.pl/artykul/510676-Sladami-moich-braci.html
[2] http://www.jozefniedzwiedz.cba.pl/rachanie-rozkladowki/Siemnice.pdf
[3] http://www.jozefniedzwiedz.cba.pl/rachanie-rozkladowki/Siemnice.pdf
[4] https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/deportations/15088731
Sources/Archives
Polish Archives"About 70 people of Jewish origin, including elderly people and children, were shot in 1942." [Deposition of Maria Konopnicka, chief of scouts; GK 195/VIII/19]
PICTURES GALLERY
YIU TEAM WITH ADOLF S.