שילוח מ - Osmolice, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ל - Belzyce, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ב- 09/10/1942

The village of Osmolice lay 18.5 kilometers south of the center of Lublin. Both before and during World War II, it was administratively part of the gmina (municipality, commune) of Piotrowice, an area containing fifty-four villages and rural communities.^[1] A total of 215 Jews lived in the villages of the gmina before the war.^[2] We do not know the number of Jewish residents in the village of Osmolice, either at that time or during the war; estimates vary from nine to 250.^[3]

In October 1939, under German occupation, the municipality became part of the Lublin County (Lublin-Land) of the Lublin District, and Emil Ziegenmeyer was appointed the Lublin County Governor.^[4] The administrative staff in Ziegenmeyer's office included Fichtner and Rodde; the secretary was Gerhard Forster, while the police department of the Lublin-Land civil administration was headed by Schoof (first names unknown, except for Forster). Ziegenmeyer and his team would determine how many people were to be deported from different localities in the county at any given time.^[5]

The nearest Gendarmerie posts were in the villages of Niedrzwica and Bystrzyce. Fryderyk Tomke [Thomke], the head of the Gendarmerie station in Niedrzwica, was notorious for his cruelty toward the local Jews. There are many postwar witness testimonies describing how he and other gendarmes would come to the villages in the area, including Osmolice, and attack the Jews, robbing them of their possessions, and even killing them.^[6] There were Blue (Polish) Police stations in Piotrowice and Niedrzwica, and Tomasz Kubot served in both.^[7]...