Simkowicze Forest Related Communities
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Murder story of Rubiezewicze Jews in the Simkowicze Forest
Murder Site
Simkowicze Forest
Poland
There was a forest half a kilometer southeast of Rubieżewicze. On June 8, 1942, the Security Police (SiPo) from Baranowicze – assisted by the German Feldgendarmerie, Latvian (or Lithuanian) police units, and the local collaborationist police – led the last 350 Jews of the Rubieżewicze Ghetto (mainly children and elderly individuals) into the forest north of the village of Simkowicze, near the old Jewish cemetery. There, the victims were shot and buried in pits that had been dug in advance.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
Written Accounts
Itshak Bar Nathan Kosower, who was born in Rubieżewicze and lived there during the war years, testifies:
On June 21, 1942, the surviving Jews of Rubieżewicze were annihilated. They were all assembled in the market square, led to pits that had been dug in the forest of Shimberich [sic], 2 km from the town, and shot there. Some of them had hidden in bunkers and other secret locations, but the killers tracked them down and exterminated them. The following young people survived… in Rubieżewicze: Leah Eisen and Malka, Frida, and Moshe Shimonovich. They had been working at the police kitchen, and stayed there.
ZIH, WARSAW 301/2849 copy YVA M.49 / 2849
Simkowicze Forest
Murder Site
Poland
53.683;26.866