Murder site of the Jews of Stepań in the Kolonia (present-day Kalinovka) Forest
YVA, Photo Collection, 7188/20
Kolonia Forest Related Communities
Stepań Related Murder Sites
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Murder story of Stepań Jews in the Kolonia Forest
Murder Site
Kolonia Forest
Poland
One day, apparently in September 1942, 553 Jews, who had been caught hiding inside and outside the ghetto (after its liquidation), were arrested by the Gendarmerie. Shortly afterward, they were led under an armed convoy, headed by Gendarmerie chief Beckmann, two kilometers away from the town, to the village of Kolonia (renamed Kalinovka in 1946). Upon reaching the shooting site, the Jews were forced to strip naked and lie down in pits that had been dug in advance, whereupon they were shot in the back of the head by men from an SD murder squad, who used machine guns. According to the ChGK document, Beckmann, his deputies Franz and Enchke, and the landwirte Gempel also took part in the massacre.
Related Resources
Written Testimonies
ChGK Soviet Reports
Aharon Grossman, who lived in Stepań during the war years, testifies:
…Some 300 Jews from the town were caught within two days [of the murder of most of the Jews of Stepań near the Korczewie Forest]. They had been hiding in the ghetto, in the basements and attics. Some were returned to the town by villagers and local non-Jews. This group was rounded up and shot dead near the Kolonia Forest across the Horyn River. They were buried in a mass grave on one of the sand hills.…
Yitshak Ganuz and Yeshayahu Peri eds., Our town Stepan, Irgun Yotsei Stepan beIsrael, Tel Aviv, 1977, p.283 (Hebrew).
Yeshayahu Peri, who was born in 1927 in Stepań and lived there during the war years, testifies:
…A few days after the large massacre [i.e., the annihilation of the ghetto inmates near the village of Korczewie), 300 Jews from the town were caught – those who had been hiding in basements, attics, or suburbs of the town. They were all shot dead and buried in the same way, in a common grave in the forest [near the village of Kolonia].…
Yitshak Ganuz and Yeshayahu Peri eds., Our town Stepan, Irgun Yotsei Stepan beIsrael, Tel Aviv, 1977, p. 303 (Hebrew).
Kolonia Forest
forest
Murder Site
Poland
51.133;26.306
Photos
Murder site of the Jews of Stepań in the Kolonia (present-day Kalinovka) Forest
YVA, Photo Collection, 7188/20