Wave of Deportation from Krychów, Camp, Poland to Sobibor, Extermination Camp, Poland on 06/1942

The Krychów camp^[1] in the Kreishauptmannschaft Cholm county, 33 km southeast of the Sobibor extermination camp, was part of the network of forced labor camps managed and operated by the Wasserwirtschaftsverwaltung (Waterworks Management) of the Lublin District.^[2] It became operational in the spring of 1940. The forced laborers, arriving in several deportation waves in 1940 and 1941, were used to drain the swamps in the area and rectify the flow of tributaries of the Bug River. In addition to Jews, the Krychów camp received various other groups of forced laborers, such as Sinti, Roma, and Poles. In early 1942, more and more of them were released.^[3]  With the onset of Operation Reinhard on March 17, 1942,^[4] all the remaining non-Jewish workers were supposed to be freed, and the camp be reserved for Jews.^[5] However, according to the recollections of the witness Józef Klauda, it was only on April 4 that most of the Poles detained at the Krychów camp were released.^[6]

The first known deportation from Krychów to Sobibor was carried out in mid-April 1942, as part of the so-called test runs, or experimental gassings, following the construction of three gas chambers at the still unfinished camp. ^[7] The Jews from Krychów were murdered under the supervision of SS-Hauptsturmführer Richard Thomalla and SS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Paul Stangl, both from the Operation Reinhard staff of SS and Police Leader Odilo Globočnik in Lublin.^[8]

The next transports took place in May 1942, when Sobibor became fully operational,^[9] and subsequently each month, until the Krychów camp was disbanded at the end of 1943....