Nowodwór-Ułęż

Historical background

During the occupation, the Germans shot a group of more than 40 Roma at the airport near Nowodwór. According to various accounts, it was a family group of musicians whom the Germans “invited” from the nearby ghetto in Mińsk Mazowiecki to play in German barracks. Apparently they stole fish from the pond, for which all of them were killed. Another version says that it was the Roma working at the airport who were murdered then. Most likely, there were two executions here, maybe more? Those murders took place between 1941 and 1943.

 

Description of commemoration

Thanks to the efforts of Tadeusz Winczewski, the president of the Niemodlin branch of the Association of the Roma in Poland, and local residents, a memorial commemorating the victims of German executions was erected on the edge of the former airport. The authors of the memorial’s design are the married couple of artists, Teresa and Tadeusz Zomer. On October 27, 2009, the obelisk unveiling ceremony took place, attended by representatives of state authorities (from the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland), local government (voivode of Lublin) and church (bishop of the Lublin diocese). A path paved with river stones leads to the monument, and stones of the same type are used to build a cross at the end of the path, rising from behind a granite slab, on which a bilingual – Polish and Romani inscription was placed.

 

A wooden wagon wheel with colours referring to the colours of the Roma flag leans against the stone. Closer to the road is a smaller granite stone with an inscription.

 

 

Inscriptions

The obelisk:

In Polish:

W tym miejscu / hitlerowscy oprawcy dokonali / zbiorowej egzekucji na Romach. / Zginęli oni – mężczyźni kobiety i dzieci / tylko dlatego, że urodzili sie Romami.

 

Dre dawa śteto sasytka chyria manusia / kerde baro zamarybenpe Romende. / Ćine one zamarde murśa dziuwla i ćchawore – / dałeske kaj łocine Romenca.

 

Translation:

In this place / Nazi executioners carried out a mass execution on the Roma. / They died – men, women and children / just because they were born Roma.

The stone:

In Polish:

The monument ten upamiętnia / zbrodnie, jakie naziści niemieccy dokonali na Romach na terenie / Lubelszczyzny podczas II wojny światowej.

 

Translation:

This memorial commemorates / German Nazi crimes committed on the Roma in the Lublin region during World War II.

 

Date of the unveiling

October 27, 2009

Author

Teresa and Tadeusz Zomer

Initiator

Tadeusz Winczewski

Gallery