Wave of Deportation from Cieszanow, Lubaczow, Lwow, Poland to Belzec, Extermination Camp, Poland on 01/05/1942

On September 7, 1939, the German Luftwaffe bombed Cieszanów, a small Polish municipality bordering the Ukraine, with a Ukrainian minority^[1], located 142 kilometers southeast of Lublin in Lubaczów County^[2]. Five days later, the first Wehrmacht units entered the town, arresting members of the local government.

The village at that time had approximately 3,000 inhabitants, a third of them Jews.^[3] The Germans soon left due to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. However, the Red Army stayed only about two weeks, before retreating in early October^[4] to the new border, just a few kilometers southeast of the village. The local Soviet commander encouraged the Jews to retreat together with his troops and seek shelter in Lubaczów, in Soviet-Russian- occupied Poland.

The vast majority of Jews decided to evacuate Cieszanów, leaving just a dozen fellow Jews behind.^[5] The Germans thereafter reoccupied Cieszanów, which became part of Zamość County (Kreishauptmannschaft Zamość), within the General Government (GG). The remaining Jews were either expelled into Soviet-occupied territory, or murdered on the spot, because Mieczysław (Mendel) Garfinkel, Head of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Zamość, reported “the complete absence of Jews” in Cieszanów, shortly after the Germans returned.^[6]...