Krzywicze

The arrival of the first Jews in Krywicze cannot be dated with precision. Before World War I, local Jews made their living mostly from trade (including peddling) and basic crafts. In 1897, Krzywicze was home to 457 Jews, while the Polish census of 1921 listed 278 Jewish residents. The interwar period (1921-1939) was a time of economic stagnation for the town. Although the Jewish community of Krzywicze was a traditional one, a Hebrew-language school, which would later join the Tarbut network, opened there in 1923. The middle of the decade saw the establishment of local branches of the Zionist Hehalutz movement, the General Zionist Party, Hanoar Hatzioni, and Hashomer Hatzair. In September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, Krzywicze was annexed by the Soviet Union. On July 1, 1941, the eighth day of the Soviet-German war, the town was occupied by the German army. At the time, there were approximately 450 Jews remaining there. On the next day, posters with anti-Jewish orders and regulations were hung throughout the town: Jews were prohibited from coming into contact with non-Jews, using the sidewalks, receiving medical treatment even from Jewish doctors, etc. They had to wear an identification mark in the form of a yellow patch bearing a Star of David. In October 1941, a Jewish council was established. Occasional arbitrary killings of Jews took place in Krzywicze. On April 28, 1942, the Germans selected several "specialist" Jews, whom they returned to the town along with their families. The remaining Jews, about 250 people, were killed: Some were shot, while the others were burned alive, together with the bodies of those shot beforehand. The Jews who had evaded the massacre – the "specialists" and some of those who had hidden during the "Aktion" in Krzywicze – were incarcerated in the "Little Ghetto" on the eastern edge of the town. The remaining Jewish survivors of the massacre were caught by a Wehrmacht unit and sent to a labor camp at the Kniahinin railway station. This camp already housed a number of Jews from Krzywicze and from nearby Dołhinów, who worked on the railroad; many of them later escaped to the partisans. The "Little Ghetto" (where a total of 80 Jews appear to have been confined) consisted of two wooden structures surrounded by barbed wire, on the western (or right) bank of the Serwecz River. Many of the inmates were killed there. In September 1942, the last of Krzywicze's Jews, numbering about 40, were massacred. Only those who had managed to flee to the partisans survived the war. Krzywicze was liberated by the Red Army on July 4, 1944.