Transport from Pajeczno, Ghetto, Poland to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 22/08/1942

The German army occupied Pajęczno, Radomsko County, on September 4, 1939. Approximately 1,042 Jews resided in the town at the time. Following the annexation of the Warthegau region to Nazi Germany, Pajęczno was incorporated into Wieluń (Welungen) County and renamed Pfeilstett. Heavy German air raids during the first days of the war resulted in an influx of more than 1,000 Jewish refugees who arrived in Pajęczno from the nearly destroyed neighboring town of Działoszyn. All of Pajęczno’s Jews were subjected to forced labor. However, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the necessity for rapid transport of supplies to the eastern front increased the need to build suitable roads. Toward that end, the Germans began conducting manhunt “Aktions,” seizing groups of Jews and sending them to forced labor camps in the Poznań (Posen) area, where they were assigned to the Autobahn projects, building the extension of the west-east highways. The first roundup in Pajęczno, according to survivor accounts, took place in July or August 1941. ...