שילוח מ - Izbica, Krasnystaw, Lublin, פולין ל - Sobibor, מחנה השמדה, פולין ב- 13/05/1942

Under German occupation, the town Izbica nad Wieprzem (Izbica on the river Wieprz), once a center of religious Jewish life, was assigned to the Krasnystaw County, and one of the main transit ghettos of the Lublin District, General Government. The decision to turn Izbica a Hauptunterbringungs- und Umschlagpunkt (the official German-language term for such ghettos), to temporarily absorb the masses of Jews from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia arriving in the General Government on their way to their deaths, was taken after a meeting of Gestapo officials at the IVB4 office of Adolf Eichmann at the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA, Reich Security Main Office) in Berlin on March 6, 1942. Following this, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle, chief of "Einsatzstab Reinhard" of the SS-und Polizeiführer (SSPF, SS- and police chief) in Lublin, Odilo Globocnik, and his expert on "Jewish affairs," promised the Krasnystaw County Commissioner, Adolf Schmidt, that his county would be the first to become "Jew-free."^[1]

Situated on the Lublin-Bełżec railway line, Izbica became a hub of the "Aktion Reinhard" deportations. The town is surrounded by mountains and the Wieprz River, and these served as the natural borders of the ghetto. In total, some 26,000 Jews passed through Izbica on their way to the Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps, and the Lublin-Majdanek camp.^[2] The German authorities ordered the formation of a Judenrat (Jewish Council) and the Jewish Police in the beginning of 1940.^[3] The deportations from Izbica were authorized by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and directed by Globocnik, together with Höfle, in collaboration with the Bevölkerung und Fürsorge (BuF, Population and Welfare) Lublin. On March 23, 1942, Richard Türk, the BuF chief, informed Höfle's deputy, SS-Obersturmführer Helmut Pohl, that two trains were set to leave Izbica, while two other trains with Jews from the Reich had already arrived. At this time, there were some 6,500 Jews in the town.^[4] On the very next day, the first train with Polish Jews left Izbica for Belzec.^[5] On April 8, the second deportation train left the ghetto for the same destination,^[6] while more Jews arrived from the Reich.^[7] On March 30, Pohl informed the BuF Lublin that, by this point, 2,200 Jews had been deported from Izbica, while some 4000 Jews from the Reich had arrived there.^[8] According to the Izbica Judenrat, there were some 8,000 Jews in the town on April 30, 1942.^[9] On May 9, the number of newly arrived deportees in Izbica was 6,960.^[10] On May 11, following the decision by SSFP Lublin to coordinate the "Aktion Reinhard" deportations in the Lublin District, the BuF Lublin ordered Schmidt and his counterparts in the Lublin District to draw up lists of Jewish artisans up to the age of fifty-five. Thus, for the time being, these Jews could still be exploited for forced labor and the German war effort. The others were to be sent to their deaths.^[11]

In mid-May 1942 (according to Leon Feldhendler, also Feldhändler, born 1910, head of the Żółkiewka Judenrat, the exact date was May 13),^[12] the third deportation train left Izbica....