שילוח מ - Belz, Sokal, Lwow, פולין ל - Hrubieszow, גטו, פולין ב- 09/1942

The town of Bełz is located 195 kilometers southeast of Lublin. In 1921, the town was home to 2,104 Jews, out of a total population of 4,148.^[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 period of Soviet rule, the town reverted to German control, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 23, 1939),^[3] and became the capital of the Bełz Municipality in Hrubieszów County, in the Lublin District of occupied-Poland (the General Government).^[4] This led to changes in the composition and size of the town's Jewish community. Some Jews left the town with the retreating Soviet troops.^[5] During the first months of their occupation, the Germans, wishing to expel the Jewish population from the areas occupied by them, conducted “death marches” of Jews from Hrubieszów, about 60 kilometers southeast of the nearby Soviet town of Sokal (30 kilometers northeast of Bełz). The Jews who had survived the march were deported back into German-occupied territory, and stayed in Bełz.^[6]

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