שילוח מ - Piotrowice, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ל - Belzyce, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ב- 11/10/1942

Piotrowice, a gmina (municipality, rural commune) some 20 kilometers south of Lublin, comprised fifty-four villages and rural communities. On the eve of World War II, it was home to 215 Jews.^[1] The 1921 census recorded the presence of Jewish communities in the villages of Abramów, Bychawka, Dębina, Kiełczewice Dolne, Kiełczewice Górne, Rechta, Strzyżewice, Tuszów, and Żabia Wola.^[2] During the war, Jews also lived in the villages of Osmolice and Bystrzyce.^[3]

Janina Woch, a local Pole, recalled that two Jewish families had lived in the village of Abramów before the war.^[4] Franciszek Markiewicz remembered a shoemaker named Abram, who had lived in the village of Strzyżewice with his wife and three children – a daughter named Dyna and two twin boys.^[5] According to Markiewicz's recollections, there were also a few Jewish families in the village of Dębina, who worked in agriculture. Yankel Green, a food store owner, lived in the village of Kiełczewice with his wife Tobi, their sons, and the sons' families.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]...