The Destruction of the
Jewish Community of Ostrow Mazowiecka

As described in the yizkor book, those members of the Jewish community of Ostrow Mazowiecka who had not managed to flee the town were murdered by the Nazis on November 11, 1939, the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I and of the creation of the modern Polish state. Below are photographs taken by the Nazis of the massacre. These photographs come from the archival collection of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, and are reproduced with the permission of the State Museum. Scans of the photographs were provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.

The information accompanying the photographs describes the event as follows:

Early in November 1939, a part of the city of Ostrow Mazowiecka was destroyed by fire. On orders from the HSSPF in Krakow, SS-Obergrueppenfuehrer Krueger, Colonel Brenner, the commander of the 4th Police Regiment, conducted an investigation and was told by Polish witnesses that the fire was supposedly set by local Jews. On 11 November, after it was determined that the Jews were 'guilty', an undetermined number of Jewish men, women, and children, were rounded-up by Wehrmacht patrols and SD personnel. The prisoners were then marched to pits outside of the city that had been dug by men of the East Prussian Police unit. Once there, Police Major Kurt Kirschner and Senior Police Commissioner Hans Hoffmann received orders from Krueger that the Jews were to be shot. The shootings were then carried out by the policemen present, many of whom reportedly were upset by their orders. Regarding the number of Jews shot, it ranges from 162 to 500.

The captions below are from the archival copies of the photographs (which are file numbers 50073, 50076, 50394, 50397, and 50400 in the Photo Archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

Order Police lead a column of Jews from Ostrow Mazowiecka to the execution site

Police prepare Jews from Ostrow Mazowiecka for execution

The last Jew to be executed is ordered to the edge of the pit

Police execute a group of Jews from Ostrow Mazowiecka at the edge of a mass grave

The bodies of executed Jews from Ostrow Mazowiecka in a mass grave

Today, there is a monument at the location just south of the town where the executions took place. Below is a photograph of the translator/editor of the yizkor book with the monument

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The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Ostrow Mazowiecka

The Destruction of the
Jewish Community of Ostrow Mazowiecka