Kolonja Izaaka
The Destruction of the Colony

German occupation of the Bialystok region began in June, 1941. According to Pinkas Hakehillot, the Jews of Kolonja Izaaka were deported, along with the Jews of Odelsk, to the Kielbasin transit camp near Grodno in November, 1942. According to the Pinkas, they were held for several weeks and then transported to Auschwitz. This is also the belief held by current residents of nearby Odelsk, as of 2007. However, there is also documentation that the camp at Treblinka received transit of 500 people from Odelsk via Kielbasin Collection Camp on (or beginning on) November 10, 1942, along with 5000 from Krynki and 8000 from Sokolka. Several natives of Kolonja Izaaka filed witness statements that were incorporated into the Yad Vashem Central Database. Only two submitters supplied places of death. Those submitted by Yitzchak Karmi in 1956 gave place of death as Treblinka. Yehoshua Ash in 1957, however, identified the camp at Majdanek as the place of death of many colonists, including members of the Ash, Knishevitsky and Kapusta families. There is no current information as to how Mr. Ash knew or came to believe that his family members had been transported to Majdanek and not to Auschwitz or Treblinka. To visit a list of the Kolonja Izaaka residents and natives who perished in the Shoah, click here.

Yad Vashem Testimony regarding Kolonja's chair, Meyshl Knishevitsky, submitted in 1957 by cousin Yehoshua Ash.