The mass murders in Tykocin occurred on 25 August 1941, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposin ...

, where the local Jewish population of

Tykocin Tykocin is a small town in north-eastern Poland, with 2,010 inhabitants (2012), located on the Narew river, in Białystok County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is one of the oldest towns in the region, with its historic center designated a His ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) was killed by German Einsatzkommando.

Background

The town of Tykocin was conquered by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the Soviet and

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

pursuant to their secret agreement known as the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

. At the end of September 1939, the area was transferred by the Nazis to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in accordance with the German–Soviet Boundary Treaty. In June 1941, the town was taken by the Germans in

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. The Germans initially bypassed the town; local Poles affiliated with the

National Democracy National Democracy may refer to: * National Democracy (Czech Republic) * National Democracy (Italy) * National Democracy (Philippines) * National Democracy (Poland) * National Democracy (Spain) See also * Civic nationalism, a general concept * ...

(Endecja) movement who prior to the war had organized boycotts of Jews prior to the war engaged in systematic looting of the Jewish homes in the town."Tykocin,"
translated from

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

by Stan Goodman, no name of author; original published by

Pinkas haKehilot Pinkas haKehillot or Pinkas Ha-kehilot, (Hebrew: פנקס הקהילות; notebook of the ewishcommunities; plural: ''Pinkasei haKehillot'') Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities from Their Foundation till after the Holocaust, is the name of each vo ...

branch of

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

According to the testimony of survivor Menachem Turek, the Germans installed Jan Fibich, a local ethnic German, as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

. Fibich, aided by Edmund Wiśniewski, prepared a list of alleged Jewish communists, which included almost all of Jewish youth.Menachem Turek
"Życie i zagłada Żydów w Tykocinie podczas niemieckiej okupacji"
Archiwum Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego. Translated by Sylwia Szymańska

Massacre

On the morning of 24 August, the Germans announced that Jews should report the next day, to the town square. At the time there were approximately 1,400 Jews in Tykocin. On 25 August the Jews were rounded up in the square by the Germans with help from Polish police. In order to placate the crowd the Germans told the Jews that they were going to be transported to

Białystok Ghetto The Białystok Ghetto ( pl, getto w Białymstoku) was a Nazi ghetto set up by the German SS between July 26 and early August 1941 in the newly formed District of Bialystok within occupied Poland. About 50,000 Jews from the vicinity of Białyst ...

. The men were marched to a nearby village and from there in trucks to the pits in Łopuchowo forest, and murdered. The women and infirm were driven by truck to the pits and murdered. The old, infirm, and other people who did not show up on 25 August, some 700 in total, were driven to the pits on 26 August and shot. Gmina Tykocin. Temat: Tykocin, Lopuchowo
at mieszas.republika.pl; also a

/ref> In a West German investigation, a Jewish witness identified SS-Obersturmführer

Hermann Schaper Hermann Schaper (August 1911 – 2002), was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He was a Holocaust perpetrator responsible for atrocities committed by the ''Einsatzgruppen'' in German-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union and was convicted ...

, who commanded SS Einsatzkommando, as the man directing the shootings. Some 150 Jews managed to escape the massacre, however most were handed over to the Germans. Some reached

, and shared the fate of the Jews there.

Commemoration

At the site of the massacre in the forest there are four monuments. The first, a communist era Polish monument, contains no reference to Jews. The second and third were erected by American Jews. The fourth, erected due to the efforts of Abraham Kapice, is in the shape of the Star of David and inscribed in Hebrew so that Israeli school children will be able to read it.Jackie Feldman
''Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag''
Published by Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford, 2008, pages 118-9.

References

{{Massacres of Jews 1941 in Poland Holocaust massacres and pogroms in Poland August 1941 events Mass murder in 1941 1941 in Judaism