Wave of Deportation from Hrubieszow, Hrubieszow, Lublin, Poland to Belzec, Camp, Poland on 12/08/1940

On September 14, 1939, Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), the Wehrmacht occupied Hrubieszów, a Polish city bordering the Ukraine. Located 80 kilometers southeast of Lublin, the city was composed of Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, and some Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans).^[1] It was the capital of Hrubieszów County.^[2] Three days later, the Germans retreated, handing the town over to the Red Army, as they had agreed, according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

The city, at that time, had 14,880 inhabitants,^[3] half of them Jews.^[4] The Red Army occupied the city a little over two weeks before retreating on October 3^[5] to the new border, just about 3 kilometers southeast of the city. A part of the Jewish population, particularly young Jewish men, left together with the Soviet troops to the east.^[6] Survivor Josef Scher testified that "…the Russians were begging: 'Come with us because the Germans, when they return, they are going to kill all of you.'"^[7]

The next day, the Germans reoccupied Hrubieszów,^[8] and with the establishment of the General Government (GG) on October 26, 1939, it became the capital of the Kreishauptmannschaft Grubeschow county, within the Lublin District.^[9]...