Gmina Komarówka Podlaska is a rural administrative district in Radzyń Podlaski County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland with iIts seat is the village of Komarówka Podlaska, 51°28' N 23°03', approximately 23 km (14 mi) E of Radzyń Podlaski and 67 km (42 mi) NE of the regional capital Lublin with a 2006 population of 4,728. Gmina Komarówka Podlaska contains the villages and settlements of Brzeziny, Brzozowy Kąt, Derewiczna, Kolembrody, Komarówka Podlaska, Przegaliny Duże, Przegaliny Małe, Walinna, Wiski, Wólka Komarowska, Woroniec, Żelizna and Żulinki. The first documentation of the Jewish community in Komarówce comes from 1765. 1921 Jewish population was 412 (39.7%) Before the outbreak of WWII about six hundred Jews lived here. The synagogue was demolished by the Nazis. [May 2009]
CEMETERY: The Jewish Cemetery is located in the southern part of town on the road leading from the highway from Parczew at ulica Krotka. About 11 gravestones remain. In the central part of the cemetery are about twenty remaining stone matzevot. Only a small part of the original cemetery is surrounded by a decorative wooden fence and maintained by the municipal authorities. MASS GRAVE: During the Holocaust, Jews were shot in the Jewish cemetery. Published on the website of Gate Grodzka Center - Theater NN: "Germany and my neighbor were, ... a neighbor called Manowiec and the SS ... We did not know what happened in the house crying, howling - ... cart, they made us sit down ... later they brought five young Jews. ... And they could not flee. One front and two, were unable to move, and this one, that somehow there was attached to it. And there was ... [the], Jewish cemetery on a route between Komarówka Rudnej and ... us. And this, my friend, he was older than me. Manowiec says: "What we have got here is a heavy task to be done." But we went. ... five graves and we have dig. A meter on two, one and a half meters deep. But those Jews were kept lying face to the ground... guys twenty, twenty-five, with the strength of age, already partisans. I keep them there, face to the earth, and so we dug the trench, us Gentiles; and they ordered one to the bottom to lie down face to the earth. They ordered us to leave and came these SS men, and from the top in the back of the skull and the leg: down to down, down. And they made us to bury them. "Boston newspaper article and LA newspaper about the murder of the Lerner family in the town. [May 2009]
US Commission No. POCE000398
Komarowka Podlaska is located in Biala-Podlaska at 51°29' 23°3', 45km NE of Lublina. Cemetery: at Krotka St. Present population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.
- Town: Urzad Gminy Komarowka, ul. Krotka 7, Tel. 405,439.
- Local: Urzad Gminy Komarowka, ul. Krotka 7, Tel. 405, 439.
- Regional: PSOZ-WKZ, ul. Brzeska 41, 21-500 Biala Podlaska.
Earliest known Jewish community was 1765, 247 Jews. The Jewish population as of the last census before World War II was 600. Orthodox Jews used unlandmarked, isolated, rural (agricultural) flat land with no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A continuous fence with non-locking gate surrounds. Fewer than 20 gravestones are visible in the cemetery. The granite rough stones-boulders or flat shaped stones have Hebrew inscriptions. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. There are no structures. The Municipality owns property used only as a Jewish cemetery. Properties adjacent are agricultural and residential. The cemetery is visited rarely. It has not been vandalized within the last ten years. In 1990, municipal authorities fixed the wall and the gate and continue occasionally to clean or clear. Vegetation overgrowth is a seasonal problem that prevents access. The present size of cemetery is 0.24 hectares.
Michal Witwicki, ul. Dembowskiego 12/53, 02-784 Warszawa, Tel. 6418345 completed survey on 12/08/1991.