שילוח מ - Rudnik, Krasnystaw, Lublin, פולין ל - Sobibor, מחנה השמדה, פולין ב- 01/05/1942

Rudnik is a gmina (municipality) about 50 kilometers southeast of Lublin. In 1921, it was home to 231 Jews.^[1] Fifty Jews lived in the village of Suchelipie, thirty-six in Wierzbica, and fifty-four in Płonka (thirty-seven of them in the village itself, and seventeen in the folwark [estate]). There were smaller Jewish communities in the villages of Bzowiec (ten Jews in Bzowiec Dolny, and twenty-eight in Bzowiec Górny), Maszów (eleven people), Borów (ten), Joanin (seven), Kaszuby (seven), Potasznia [Potaznia] (three), Suchelipe-Nowiny (three), and Rudnik, the seat of the municipality (six Jews). The Jewish Social Self-Help records show that, as of October 15, 1940, there were 220 Jews in the villages of the area, while the Polish municipal administration estimated after WWII that there had been 150 Jewish inhabitants in the gmina on the eve of the war.^[2]

The Wehrmacht occupied the area in September 1939, and in October that year the Germans regained control over it after a brief interlude of Soviet rule.^[3] At that time, an unknown number of Jews left the nearby villages with the retreating Red Army.^[4] Under German rule, the municipality was administratively assigned to the Krasnystaw County of the Lublin District of the General Government (the part of occupied Poland that was not officially annexed to the Reich).

Lejbuś [Lejba] Mandelkern was the head of the local Judenrat.^[5] Other Judenrat members were Szmul Baglaibter, Wolf Blumenfeld, Josef Szarf, Josef Milasztam, Srólka Grinbaum, Josef Griner, Josef Kliger, and Boruch Pelc.^[6]...