שילוח מ - Belz, Sokal, Lwow, פולין ל - Hrubieszow Area, communal pasture, אתר רצח, פולין ב- 02/06/1942

The town of Bełz is located 195 kilometers southeast of Lublin. In 1921, the Jewish population of Bełz was 2,104 out of a total of 4,148 inhabitants.^[1] On the eve of World War II, there were 2,500 Jewish residents in Bełz.^[2]

On September 14, 1939, the Wehrmacht occupied Bełz. After a brief interim presence of Soviet forces, the town was re-occupied by Nazi Germany, as agreed under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 23, 1939),^[3] and became the capital of Bełz Municipality, which was located in Hrubieszów County, within the Lublin District of occupied-Poland (the General Government).^[4] As a result, there were changes in the composition and size of the Jewish population in the town. Some left the town together with the retreating Soviet troops.^[5] The Germans, in order to evacuate the Jewish population from their occupied territories, during the first months of their occupation, conducted “death marches” of Jews from Hrubieszów, about 60 kilometers southeast of the nearby Soviet city of Sokal (30 kilometers northeast of Bełz). The Jews who survived the march were deported back to the German-occupied territory and stayed in Bełz.^[6]

In the first days of the German occupation, harsh anti-Jewish actions and the abduction of Jewish men to forced labor began. In 1940, all Jews were ordered to wear a yellow ribbon with a Star of David.^[7]...