Transport from Skierbieszow, Zamosc, Lublin, Poland to Skierbieszów Area, Murder Site, Poland on 14/05/1942

Skierbieszów is a village 17 kilometers north of the city of Zamość. During World War II it was the location of the Skierbieszów gmina (municipality), in Zamość County, within the Lublin District of the occupied part of Poland, not formally annexed to the Reich, called the Generalgouvernement (General Government).

According to the 1921 national census, Skierbieszów had a population of 1,021, including 106 Jews.^[1] The names of the villages’ Jewish property owners—among them Abram Bojm, Dawid Brandwajn, and Marie Edelstein—can be seen in the correspondence from June 1940, between the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the Skierbieszów Municipality and the Zamość Judenrat.^[2] The lists of the properties owned by Jews were created at the order of the German authorities, as a prelude to confiscation, which happened on August 1, 1940.^[3]

It seems that most Jews escaped from the village by the end of 1940, possibly to the Soviet Union. This conclusion is based on a census conducted at that time, which recorded only ten Jewish residents, and records of the Starostwo Powiatowe w Zamościu (Zamość County Authority Office), which show only sixteen Jews in the Skierbieszów Municipality, prior to deportation.^[4]...