Transport from Sobibor, Wlodawa, Lublin, Poland to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 22/10/1942

Sobibór is a village in eastern Poland, located 8 kilometers south of Włodawa, along the Chełm-Włodawa railway line. At the time of World War II, this region was sparsely populated and characterized by dense forests and swamplands. According to the 1921 Polish census, the village was home to only thirty-one Jews, out of a total population of 284.^[1]  However, according to the recollections of Chaim Melcer, who was born in Sobibór in 1930, the population of the village had grown to approximately 1,100 by the time of the outbreak of World War II. This figure included seventy-two Jews, who lived in nine houses. They constituted the entire Jewish community of the village.^[2]

Melcer vividly recalls the day of September 14, 1939, when one hundred German troops rode into Sobibór on motorcycles and horses, swiftly occupying the village. Administratively, Sobibór became part of the jurisdiction of the Chełm County (Chołm Kreis) in the Lublin District (Distrikt) of the General Government. The local Jewish residents were subjected to persecution, including the confiscation of their valuables, the compulsory wearing of "armbands of shame," and forced labor. All nine Jewish families were crammed into just three houses, and their freedom of movement was restricted.^[3]

Sobibór's name is infamously associated with the murder site, or death camp Sobibor, constructed by Nazi Germany at a remote spot, approximately six kilometers southeast of the village. The camp was built along the railway tracks west of the Sobibór station; its construction commenced in March 1942, and neared completion by mid-April.^[4] Chaim Melcer recalls a specific instance when German soldiers marched into the village, entered the Jewish homes, and selected some twenty-five Jews for forced labor. These men were then taken to the train station, to unload building materials intended for the construction of the Sobibor camp. When the gassings began in April 1942, a constant stream of deportation trains loaded with victims started arriving at the station, and the residents of the village (both Jews and non-Jews) became aware of the atrocities taking place in their vicinity. ^[5]...