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

"The news was out that S[zczebrzeszyn] will become Judenrein [“free of Jews”]. We saw no escape. What can you do? How do you disappear?" Devorah (Dora) Fleisher (nee Schwartz) wrote after the war, referring to October 1942.^[1]

 Szczebrzeszyn, located near the eastern boundary of Biłgoraj County in the Lublin District, within the Generalgouvernement (General Government, the part of Poland not officially annexed to Germany), had 2,964 Jewish inhabitants at the outbreak of World War II.^[2] Jewish refugees from Łódź and from the towns of Włocławek, Janów Lubelski and Frampol arrived in 1939 and at the beginning of 1940.^[3] The Jews were deported to forced labor camps, to killing sites in the area and to the Bełżec death camp, which was located 60 kilometers southeast of Szczebrzeszyn.^[4] There were three transports from the town to Bełżec, all in 1942: in May, on August 8 and on October 21.^[5]

In September 1942, Jews from nearby villages – Radecznica, Chłopków, Gorajec, Mokrelipie and Zaporze – were forced to move to Szczebrzeszyn, as the Germans concentrated the remaining Jewish population in the area for the final deportation.^[6] News of the tragic end of the Jewish communities in Zamość and in Turobin reached the town on October 18, 1942.^[7] In Szczebrzeszyn, people looked for ways to prepare for the destruction of their community. On October 19, Dr. Bolotny, the only Jewish physician in town, was warned by a Volksdeutsche administrative employee in town hall that the liquidation was approaching. His family hid in a room in the magistrate building, aided by the Volksdeutsche.^[8]...