Transport from Zwierzyniec, Zamosc, Lublin, Poland to Belzec, Extermination Camp, Poland on 21/10/1942

Following the occupation and partition of Poland in the fall of 1939, the town of Zwierzyniec, located about 94 km southeast of Lublin, fell under the control of Nazi Germany for the rest of World War II. In 1940, it was attached to Biłgoraj County (Landkreis) of the Lublin District (Distrikt) within the newly formed administrative entity known as the General Government (Generalgouvernement). In August 1939, 520 Jews lived in Zwierzyniec and in the neighboring village of Rudka, out of a total of 1,682 inhabitants, constituting 31 percent of the overall population. This number dropped to 372 prior to the deportations in 1942 according to the JSS (Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe – Jewish Social Self-help) correspondence from April 1942. An open, unfenced ghetto was established in Zwierzyniec but the date of its establishment is not clear. The first reference to a ghetto in Zwierzyniec according to JSS records can be traced back to July 1941. Zwierzyniec functioned as the hub for Jewish deportees from across Biłgoraj County, who were assembled there (in some cases overnight) and were subsequently taken to the Bełżec death camp from the town’s railway station....