שילוח מ - Zakrzew, Krasnystaw, Lublin, פולין ל - Sobibor, מחנה השמדה, פולין ב- 10/05/1942

Zakrzew is a village in the Lublin Voivodeship in southeastern Poland. According to historian Tatiana Berenstein, at the time of the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, the village was home to 100 Jews.^[1] That year, following the partition of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Zakrzew was administratively assigned to the Krasnystaw County (Kreis) of the Lublin District (Distrikt) of the General Government (Generalgouvernement; the part of German-occupied Poland that had not been officially annexed to the German Reich).

In May 1941, some 950-1250 Jews were expelled from Krasnystaw to Gmina Zakrzew and resettled in fifteen of its villages. Most of the Jews from Krasnystaw did not stay in the gmina, but moved on to other towns in the county: Wysokie, Gorzków, and Kraśniczyn.^[2] Next year, on April 26, 1942, on the eve of the deportations, the Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS) branch in Krasnystaw reported to the JSS headquarters in Kraków that Gmina Zakrzew had 200 Jewish residents, half of whom were locals, while the other half were originally from Krasnystaw.^[3]

According to Berenstein, these 200 Jews were deported from Zakrzew to Turobin in May 1942.^[4] The USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos indicates that this transport was part of the deportation of Jews from the southern area of the Krasnystaw County to the collection point in Krasnystaw, and from there to Sobibor.^[5] The Jewish youth Dov Freiberg lived in Turobin at this time. He would later testify that, on May 10, the Jews from the neighboring towns arrived in Turobin. The Jews from Zakrzew, which lay 14 kilometers northwest of Turobin, had most probably been marched to the latter town on foot, or transported there in horse-drawn wagons. According to Dov Freiberg, on May 13 all the Jews present in Turobin, both the locals and the recent arrivals, were taken some 16 kilometers east, to Krasnystaw. Children were driven in carts, but the majority of Jews were marched there on foot. Dov Freiberg states that the journey took two days and two nights. On their way to the Krasnystaw railway station, the Jews of Turobin were joined by deportees from Wysokie and Gorzków.^[6] Upon arrival in Krasnystaw, all the Jews had to spend the night in the open air next to the railway tracks. They were given some food and water by the local Jewish Social Self-Help office.^[7]...