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Murder Story of Hancewicze Jews in Polanca Jasińskiego
Murder Site
Yasinskaya Clearing
Poland
Some testimonies report that groups of Hancewicze Jews of various ages were shot in the forest outside the town in the area of the Yasinskaya clearing [Polanca Jasińskiego]. This way, in August 1941 a group of 70 Jews was shot at that site. Local residents had to bury the bodies after the shootings.
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Resources.tabstitle.chgk Soviet Reports
Aleksandr Matulis, who was born in 1903 and lived in Hancewicze during the war years, testified:
Jews specifically were collected from everywhere during the day and at night. They were taken by force to the forest outside the village, to the Yasinskiy clearing [Polanca Jasińskiego]. There they were all shot: the old men, the old women, and the women and children of various ages. Dozens of them [the bodies] were lying near the graves and many of us, residents of Gantsevichi (Hancewicze) were forced to bury the bodies and cover over the graves. For example, in August 1941 the Germans forced me to dig one large grave into which about 70 Jews of various ages who were shot in the Yasinskaya clearing [Polanca Jasińskiego] were thrown.
GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-90-32 copy YVA M.33 / JM/20017
Yasinskaya Clearing
Murder Site
Poland
52.758;26.429