Transport from Siedliszcze, Chelm, Lublin, Poland to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 18/05/1942

Siedliszcze is a town in eastern Poland, some 56 kilometers southeast of Włodawa. According to the census of 1921, it was home to 724 Jews, who made up the large majority of the total population, which stood at 944.^[1] A report by the Jewish Council of Siedliszcze stated that the number of Jews in the town had grown to 1,360 by the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland.^[2] Following the outbreak of World War II, some local Jews crossed over into Soviet-controlled territory.^[3] After falling under Nazi German control in October 1939,^[4] the town became part of the Chełm County (Kreis) in the Lublin District (Distrikt), within the newly formed entity known as the General Government (Generalgouvernement), encompassing the Polish territory that had been occupied by Germany, but not annexed to the Reich. 

In December 1939, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established in Siedliszcze. Local resident Sarah Hermann would recall that some Jews had to leave their homes and move to another area in the town.^[5] Nevertheless, according to historian David Silberklang, Siedliszcze was not put "under a ghetto regime."^[6] It was a small locality that served as a transit point, from which both local Jews and Jews from elsewhere in Poland (and even from other countries) were deported to other locations, to labor camps, or to the Sobibor death camp.^[7]  

According to the Siedliszcze Memorial Book, already in the fall of 1939 the German occupiers carried out a pogrom, which claimed the lives of several Jews. During another raid, on a Friday that same fall, the Germans took some hostages and demanded a ransom, which was duly collected – in the form of women's jewelry and other valuables – and handed over to the occupiers. Such assaults continued.^[8]...