Roma were killed in ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps. In the case of the
Polish Roma, however, the majority were killed in executions in places where they had been
captured. They were killed individually or in larger groups. Poland is dotted with graves of Roma
murdered by the Germans during World War II. Only a few of them are recognised and
commemorated with dignity.
One of those places is the grave of the Roma in the Duchowizna/Zakroczym forest. In the
autumn of 1944 the SS and Gestapo crew of the Fort III prison in Pomiechówek bestially
murdered a group of 104 Roma. The only victims known by name are Stefan Zieliński, 26, and
Bronisław Majewski, 32.
Today, at the execution site there is a grave, a cross and a memorial with the inscription ‘In the
dark forest, the last cry of the Roma’ engraved in a stone. The stone rests inside a chakra made
of stones – the central element of the Roma flag – a symbol of Roma unity.
The photos show the author of the text, Andrzej Grzymała-Kazłowski.
Fot. Małgorzata Brus
