Transport from Gorajec, Zamosc, Lublin, Poland to Szczebrzeszyn, Zamosc, Lublin, Poland on 09/1942

In 1939, 15,663 Jews lived in Biłgoraj County, in the Lublin District, constituting about 46 percent of the population. According to the 1921 Polish national census, Gorajec – a village in the northern part of Biłgoraj County (until April 1940 in Zamość County), in the vicinity of Radecznica, some 12 kilometers from the town of Szczebrzeszyn – had a population of 1,160, including 52 Jews. The village has three sections: Gorajec-Stara Wieś, Gorajec-Zastawie, and Gorajec-Zagroble. Very little information exists about the Jewish community of Gorajec, and sources are lacking about the number of Jews living in the village at the outbreak of the war. The fact that Gorajec does not appear in Pinkas Hakehillot , which lists communities with at least 100 Jewish inhabitants, means that fewer than that number of Jews lived there.

Shortly after the Germans arrived in the area, in September 1939, the Jews in Gorajec were forced to wear Star of David armbands and were subjected to economic persecution and violence. Jewish men were sent to do forced labor – some never returned. At the beginning of October 1939, an unknown number of Jews from the village escaped to the USSR. ...