KONSKOWOLA

KONSKOWOLA (Pol. Końskawola), small town near Pulawy, Lublin province, Poland. In 1712 the lady of the manor, Helena Czartoryska, permitted Jews to settle and to acquire real estate. In 1765 the Jewish community numbered 643 poll tax payers, 569 in the township and 74 in 11 villages. In 1776, during the census of Jewish books, 519 books were taxed in Konskowola. In 1816, 40 Jewish families applied to Prince Czartoryski requesting agricultural land for settlement. The Jewish population numbered 872 (44% of the total) in 1827, 1,536 (59%) in 1857, 1,453 (52%) in 1897, and 876 (53.6%) in 1921. Before the outbreak of World War II there were about 1,100 Jews in Konskowola. At the end of 1940 a ghetto was established there. On May 8, 1942, 1,600 of the 2,000 Jews in the ghetto (including refugees) were sent to Sobibor, to be replaced by about 3,000 Jews from Slovakia and additional refugees. Around 3,000 of them were sent to labor camps and in October 1942, 1,000 "unproductive" Jews, including women and children, were executed outside the town. The labor camps were liquidated in May 1943. No Jewish community was subsequently reconstituted in Konskowola. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gazeta narodowa i obca (June 20, 1793); Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego, S.V.; B. Wasiutyński, Ludnośćżydowska w Polsce w XIX i XX wiekach (1930), 63; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; Bleter far Geshikhte, 3:1 (1950), table no. 9; Yad Vashem Archives. (Stefan Krakowski)