שילוח מ - Melgiew, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ל - Piaski Luterskie, גטו, פולין ב- 10/1942

The village of Mełgiew lies 16 kilometers east of Lublin. Before and during World War II, it was the seat of the Mełgiew gmina (municipality, commune), which included forty-two villages. According to the 1921 census, a total of 215 Jews lived in the gmina – in the villages of Adampol (eleven), Ciechanki Krzesimowskie (one), Ciechanki Łęczyńskie (five), Janowice (three), Józefów (two), Krępiec (eight), Krępiec Nowy (four), Krzesimów (fourteen in the manor, and sixteen in the village itself), Mełgiew (fifty-eight), Mełgiew-Podzamcze (seven), Minkowice Dolne (fifteen), Trzeszkowice (twenty-five in the manor, and thirty-nine in the village), and Żurawniki (seven).^[1]

Jadwiga Gawrońska (Fryda Ruel), who moved to Mełgiew from Lublin in May 1941, recalled that a few Jewish families lived there at the time.^[2] She also mentioned the Prejzerowicz family, who lived in the neighboring village. Krystyna Modrzewska – another Jewish woman who had escaped from Lublin, and was living in Mełgiew under a false identity – recalled a local shoemaker named Itzhak Gaj, his wife, and their three daughters.^[3] Yad Vashem's Hall of Names holds the Pages of Testimony of Avraham Yosef Gora, a dairy owner who lived in Minkowice, and of Ester Steinberg from the village of Trzeszkowice.^[4]

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.^[5] Gendarmerie posts were set up in Piaski, Bychawa, Lubartów, Niedrzwica, and in the city of Lublin.^[6] There was a Blue Police station in Mełgiew, and Antoni Braszak served as its commandant.^[7]...