Transport from Siemnice, Tomaszow Lubelski, Lublin, Poland to Celestynów, Tomaszow Lubelski, Lublin, Poland on 03/10/1942

The village of Siemnice is located approximately 129 kilometers southeast of the city of Lublin. A census conducted by the Polish government in 1921 recorded nine Jews living in Siemnice.^[1] A local Pole, Kazimierz Seń, recalled that three Jewish families lived in the village before the war.^[2]

During World War II, it was one of twenty-five villages which belonged to the municipality of Rachanie, then located in Zamość County, within the Lublin District of occupied Poland.^[3]

Siemnice was occupied by the Germans on September 13, 1939.  After a brief interim period of Soviet control, the village returned to German authority on September 27.^[4] A census conducted at the end of 1940 recorded eight Jews living in the village.^[5] Jewish refugees from surrounding towns and villages (e.g.Tyszowce, Michałow, Podworzec, Belz and Sokal) joined the local Jewish community from Siemnice. This caused the Jewish population in the village to grow unofficially to several dozen, as the plight and the persecution of the Jews increased.^[6]...