Transport from Rejowiec, Chelm, Lublin, Poland to Krychów, Camp, Poland on 08/04/1942

Rejowiec, a town some 55 kilometers east of Lublin, in the Chełm County of the Lublin District, was home to 2,500-2,600 Jews on the eve of World War II.^[1]

The Wehrmacht occupied the town in September 1939, after the retreat of the Soviet Army.^[2] German policemen stationed in Chełm would visit the town several times a week and subject the Jewish population to systematic abuse. Later, these policemen also participated in the deportation of the Jews.^[3] The local Jewish residents were initially sent to forced labor in Bełżec, Grochów, and in the vicinity of Rejowiec. The overcrowding in the town became more severe following the influx of more than 1,000 Jewish deportees from Kraków and Lublin.^[4]

Between April 1, 1942 and December that year, Dr. Warner Ansel was the County Governor, and he was responsible for planning and conducting the deportations.^[5] There was a Blue (Polish) Police station in Rejowiec, but the nearest Gendarmerie and Grenzpolizei (Border Police) posts were in the city of Chełm, 15 kilometers east of the town. At that time, Franz Kubin was the commander of the office of the KdS branch (KdS Aussenstelle) in Chełm, which was known as the "Border Commissariat Cholm," and his deputies were Erich Horn and Andreas Braumüller.^[6] Hugo Raschendorfer, Rudolf Theimer, and Rudolf Selch worked for the Department of Jewish Affairs at the Chełm branch of the Grenzpolizei.^[7] They, too, were responsible for conducting the deportations from Rejowiec. The SS men Gustav Jeske and Peter Oster were stationed at a labor camp in the Rejowiec area, as was another SS officer named Frank. According to eyewitnesses, these men were also involved in the deportations.^[8]...