Jeziorko forest cemetery
The forest cemetery in Jeziorko , where the remains of victims of the National Socialists rest, is located in north-eastern Poland near the village of Jeziorko on the 669 Łomża - Jedwabne road , about seven kilometers from Łomża.
history
The city and the powiat Łomża were occupied by the Soviet Army in September 1939 according to the secret Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement . In July 1941 the city was occupied by the Wehrmacht and assigned to the Bialystok district in the Reichskommissariat Ostland .
The ashes of the victims of three massacres are buried in the three mass graves:
- the elderly from the old people's home in Pieńki Borowe village: around 60 victims who were murdered in July 1942,
- of political prisoners from Łomża prison: 62 victims who were executed on the night of June 29-30, 1943,
- of hostages - citizens of Łomża with higher education: the 52 victims were arrested on the morning of July 15, 1943 and shot on the same day in the clearing near Jeziorko. Of this group of victims, only Jerzy Smurzyński (* 1928) survived , who had left home early that day and thus escaped arrest. His parents were executed in the forest that same day. This action was carried out by a task force appointed by Gauleiter Erich Koch under the command of officer Müller.
In the autumn of 1944, Sonderkommando 1005 dug up the bodies of the murdered and burned them at the stake in order to erase the traces of the crime.
In the spring of 1945, residents of the city of Łomża built a cemetery with three mass graves in the forest clearing. The Council for the Care of Remembrance granted the forest cemetery the status of a place of national remembrance. The history of the cemetery has been documented almost completely.
literature
- Jerzy Smurzyński: Czarne Lata na Łomżyńskiej Ziemi. (Black Years in the Łomża Country), Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Ziemi Łomżyńskiej, Warszawa-Łomża 1997
- Jerzy Smurzyński: Jeziorko - historia leśnej polany. (Jeziorko - the story of a forest clearing), Starostwo Powiatowe w Łomży, Łomża-Warszawa 2007
- Beata Sejnowska-Runo: Jeziorko - cmentarz na leśnej polanie. (Jeziorko - the cemetery in a clearing), Urząd Gminy w Piątnicy, Łomża-Jeziorko 2007
Web links
Coordinates: 53 ° 14 ′ 0.5 ″ N , 22 ° 11 ′ 39.5 ″ E