Transport from Izbica, Krasnystaw, Lublin, Poland to Belzec, Extermination Camp, Poland on 24/03/1942

The town of Izbica nad Wieprzem (Izbica on the river Wieprz), located some 58 kilometers southeast of Lublin, was home to 4,700 Jews on the eve of World War II.^[1] The 1921 population census indicates that Jews made up about 90% of the total population of Izbica.^[2]

The Wehrmacht occupied the town in October 1939, after a few days' interlude of Soviet rule.^[3] Under German authority, Izbica was assigned to the Krasnystaw County of the Lublin District of the General Government (Generalgouvernement) – Nazi-occupied central Poland, which had not been annexed to the Reich.

In November 1939, Johann (Jan) Schulz, a Volksdeutsche (ethnic German), was appointed head of the town's civil administration. A Judenrat (Jewish Council) and a Jewish police force were established there in early 1940.^[4] In 1941, a KdS (Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) branch for the Krasnystaw County was set up in Izbica under the command of Kurt Engels and his deputy, Ludwig Klemm (formerly Ludwik Klim).^[5] Numerous anti-Jewish decrees were introduced in the town, including a ban on trade, a curfew, the requirement to wear a special armband, a prohibition on traveling out of town (from October 15, 1941), and forced labor,^[6] among others.^[7] According to survivors' testimonies, Engels and Klemm, aided by Schulz, would loot, rape, torture, and murder the Jews of Izbica at will on a daily basis.^[8]...