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

Bychawa is a town located some 30 kilometers south of Lublin. According to the Polish census of 1921, there were 1,876 Jews in the town, out of a total population of 2,848.^[1] According to historian Tatiana Berenstein, there were about 2,000 Jews living in Bychawa on the eve of World War II.^[2] In September 1939, then town was occupied by the Germans, and then by the Soviets. Shortly thereafter, the Soviet troops withdrew across the Bug River, together with some of the town's younger Jews, who had chosen to accompany them. Bychawa remained under Nazi occupation until the arrival of the Red Army in 1944.^[3]

The town was under the jurisdiction of the German Lublin District Gendarmerie. As of May 1, 1942, its commander was August Preyssl, a Major, and subsequently Lieutenant Colonel, of the Gendarmerie. The gendarmes of the Lublin District were divided into three Gendarmerie Hauptmannschaften: Lublin, Radzyn (Radzyń), and Zamosc (Zamość). The Lublin Gendarmerie Hauptmannschaft had platoons in Lublin, Cholm (Chełm), Janow (Janów) Lubelski, and Krasnik (Kraśnik). Bychawa's Gendarmerie post was under the jurisdiction of the Lublin platoon, but, in February 1942, the post itself was moved to the village of Niedrzwica,^[4] which had a train station that served for the deportations of Jews from Bychawa, Bełżyce, and other localities in the area to the death camps of Operation Reinhard.^[5]

Several waves of Jewish deportees and refugees arrived in Bychawa, beginning in late 1939. By March 1941, some 145 deportees had arrived from Łódź, and 246 Jews had been deported to Bychawa from Kraków. Additionally, some of the Jews who had left Lublin after March 1941 most probably made their way to Bychawa.^[6] By July that year, the influx of refugees and deportees had swollen the town’s Jewish population to 2,750.^[7]...