Transport from Wielun, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 22/08/1942

Wieluń, a town in southern Poland, was located 14 kilometers northwest of the Polish-German border. Under Nazi rule, it belonged to the Reichsgau Wartheland (Warthegau) and was the capital of Wieluń County. The Jewish population of Wieluń County numbered approximately 11,000 before the war. Around the time of the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, approximately 4,200 Jews resided in the town of Wieluń, comprising 40 percent of the local population.^[1]

In the first months of the occupation, particularly on November 4, 1939, a few hundred Jews were taken to the local prison; they were subsequently sent to slave labor at Radogoszcz, a suburb of Łódź (Litzmannstadt).^[2] According to the Wieluń Yizkor book, in the summer of 1940 an unknown number of Jews were sent to work camps in the Poznań area in order to build the Poznań-Frankfurt-Oder-Berlin railroad.^[3]

In December 1940, the remaining Jews in Wieluń were transferred to an open ghetto.^[4] Refugees from nearby towns, such as Lututow and Praszka, were also herded into the ghetto. After the ghetto’s establishment, Jews were employed in two labor camps, which operated about two miles from the town. A Judenrat was established, headed by Tuwje Chaim Lipszyc,...