The June massacre was stopped by German soldiers after Jewish women bribed them to intervene.
Some twenty Jewish families were expelled to Siberia on 21 June 1941 and approximately 2,000 Jews remained in the town.
The Germans, however, bypassed Szczuczyn in their advance eastwards leaving control of the town to the Polish locals.
Armed with sticks, the Poles took some 2,500 Jews to the Jewish cemetery, where they were held prisoner while their homes were looted and burned.
In a 1950 trial by communist authorities one man, Stanislaw Zalewski, was sentenced to death (later commuted to prison).