A site devoted to the Jewish shtetl of Radzilow. A map of the area. Some photographs of Jewish life. The Radzilow Stone at Treblinka (53 miles from Radzilow). The Radzilow Section at Yad Vashem. The Jews of Radzilow and the Shoah - from which this time in the summer of 1941 (testimony of Menachem Finkielsztejn):
On the 24th [June 1941] Germans ordered all males to assemble near the synagogue. Immediately people understood what was the reason. They started running away from the town, but the Poles kept a watch over all the roads and brought back those who ran away. Only a few managed to escape, including myself and my father. In the meantime, German soldiers proceeded to give lessons of "good manners" towards the Jews. These "lessons" took place in the presence of many assembled Poles.(Hat tip: Chris Shannon.)Soldiers ordered the Jews to bring out all the holy books and Torahs from the synagogue and the prayer house and burn them. When Jews refused, the Germans ordered them to unroll the Torahs and douse them with kerosene and then they set them alight. They ordered the Jews to sing and dance around the huge burning pile. Around the dancing Jews, a jeering crowd was assembled, which beat them freely. When the holy books burned down, they harnessed the Jews to carts and ordered them to pull while beating them mercilessly. The Jews had to pull them all over town. Screams of pain were frequently piercing the air. But together with these screams one could hear the happily screaming Polish and German sadists who were sitting in the carts. Poles and Germans continued to torment the Jews until they chased them to a swampy little river near the town. The Jews were ordered there to undress completely and to get up to their necks in the swamp. Sick and old men who could not obey these beastly orders were beaten up and thrown into even deeper swamps. [...] From this day on, a horrible chain of sufferings and torments began for the Jews. The Poles were the main tormentors, as they mercilessly beat men, women, and children, irrespective of their age. They also sent the Germans at every opportunity, by insinuating things. And so on the 26th of June, on Friday evening, they sent a group of German soldiers to our house. Like wild animals, tormentors dispersed around the house searching and throwing around everything they found. Anything of value they took and put on carts waiting in front of the house. They were bursting with joy. They stomped in their heavy boots over household items, which they threw to the ground. Foodstuffs they also threw out and doused with kerosene. Germans were accompanied by Poles, whose leader, Henryk Dziekonski, later would also distinguish himself with barbarity. He destroyed everything with an even greater ferocity. He broke tables, wardrobes, and candelabras. When they finished destroying things, they started beating my father. Escape was impossible because the house was surrounded by soldiers.