Witness

Adolf S.

Country

Poland

Birthdate and Birthplace

1928, Siemnice

Year of video recording

2012

InEvidence link (YahadMap)
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Siemnice, 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.

Adolf S., born in 1928 © Rita Villanueva - Yahad - In Unum

Adolf S. explaining vividly the details of the execution. © Rita Villanueva - Yahad - In Unum

© Rita Villanueva - Yahad - In Unum

© Rita Villanueva - Yahad-In Unum

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

A kiling site in Siemnice © Rita Villanueva - Yahad-In Unum

A gravestone at the Jewish cemetery in Komarow near Tomaszow Lubelski bears the inscription "Here lie the remains of around 70 Jews who were murdered by the Nazis in Siemnice on 3 October 1942" and the names of those murdered are also engraved. Thanks to Moris Trost, the remains of those murdered were exhumed in 1995 and transferred to the cemetery in Komarow. He also initiated the renovation of the entire cemetery. © sztetl.org.pl

Fig. 117: Siemnice, building from the 1950s, © F. Łukowski, collection of the MZ in Zamość.[1] [1] http://www.jozefniedzwiedz.cba.pl/rachanie-rozkladowki/Siemnice.pdf

Fig. 118 Siemnice, threshing on a German estate during the Second World War, © F. Łukowski, collection of the MZ in Zamość.[1] [1] http://www.jozefniedzwiedz.cba.pl/rachanie-rozkladowki/Siemnice.pdf

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.