It was a third stop on a long hot day, the last before the long drive to Krakow where we ate dinner and checked into our hotel for the night. But, this stop was an important complement to what we had seen so far in helping us understand the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.
The Zbylitowska Gor Mass Graves are nestled in a forest grove. The only hint that tens of thousands of Jewish & Polish families are buried there in mass, unmarked graves are the trenches, the labyrinth of trenches.
It is so verdant and peaceful that it could have been a playground, a place where children play Hide and Seek, Red Rover, or Cops and Robbers or a place where families enjoyed a picnic meal together.
Instead, it is the site of mass murder, where at least 6,000 Jews and 2,000 Poles were executed. Most were shot in the back of the head by Nazi SS guards. They fell into the ditches dug to entomb then, then were covered with lime.
One of the most surprising and disturbing things I have learned in Personally Poland is that the Germans intended to kill all of the Jews in Europe. Forced labor was tertiary to mass extermination and plunder. Selection for forced labor was a temporary reprieve from certain death. Once a person could no longer labor, they were sent to the gas chamber or shot to death. In this forest and at Majdanek Concentration Camp outside of Lublin (where we started our day), there was no work, only death. And, precious few brought to Zbylitowska Gor Mass Graves escaped or survived.
May the souls of the men, women, and children murdered and buried here rest in peace. And, may we never, ever forget their names or their stories.
