Transport from Tyszowce, Tomaszow Lubelski, Lublin, Poland to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 22/05/1942

The town of Tyszowce is located 125 kilometers southeast of Lublin, and was occupied by the Germans on September 17, 1939. Eight days later, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (concluded on August 23), the town was transferred to Soviet control. It again returned to German authority on September 28, 1939.

Estimates of the number of Jews who lived in the town in 1939, on the eve of the war, range from 1,654 to 3,800.^[1] About 1,000 Jews left the town, joining the Red Army in its retreat route to the east.^[2]

Before the German occupation, most of the Jews lived near the Huczwa River, which crossed the town.^[3] After the occupation, the Jews of Tyszowce were ordered to establish a Judenrat (a Jewish Council)^[4] and were persecuted in various ways:^[5] forced to wear armbands with the Star of David; vandalization of their shops^[6]; confiscation of their property and valuables; and damage to their religious and cultural centers.^[7] For example, the Germans set fire to one of the town synagogues, where, as Emanuel Ringelblum -the historian who established the Oneg Shabbat underground archives in the Warsaw ghetto- pointed out, 150 Jews were burnt alive inside.^[8]...