Wave of Deportation from Rejowiec, Chelm, Lublin, Poland to Rejowiec Area, field, Murder Site, Poland on 10/08/1942

Rejowiec, a town some 55 kilometers east of Lublin, in the Chełm County of the Lublin District, was home to 2,500-2,600 Jews on the eve of World War II.^[1]

The Wehrmacht occupied the town in September 1939, after a brief interlude of Soviet rule.^[2]  Dr. Warner Ansel was the County Governor between April 1, and December 1942was therefore responsible for planning and conducting the deportations.^[3]

The first deportation from Rejowiec to a death camp, most likely to Sobibor, took place on April 7, 1942. More than 2,000 people were sent to their deaths then.^[4] A smaller group of some 400-500 Jews was sent to the Krychów Wasserwirtschaft (water management) labor camp on April 8.^[5] Some 400 Jews managed to stay in the town, either by hiding or by being classified as "useful" laborers at the nearby Budny estate.^[6] On April 16, 18, and 20, a total of more than 3,000 Jewish deportees arrived in Rejowiec from Slovakia and Theresienstadt, followed by 1,000 deportees from Wrocław and Lipnik on May 5, and another 3,000 Slovak Jews on May 23, 24, and 25.^[7] Most of these Jews were deported from Rejowiec to the Sobibor death camp in at least one deportation that took place on August 9.^[8]...