שילוח מ - Biskupice Lubelskie, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ל - Trawniki, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ב- 23/03/1942

The town of Biskupice is located approximately 4 kilometers west of Trawniki, 20 kilometers southeast of Świdnik, and 30 kilometers southeast of the regional capital, Lublin. The local Jewish community, though small in the mid-17th century, had grown to 543 people (more than a third of the total population, which stood at 1,476) by 1897. However, their numbers shrank dramatically as a result of World War I, and in 1921 the town was home to only 129 Jews (approximately one-seventh of the total population).^[1]

In October 1939, following a brief interlude of Soviet control, Nazi Germany occupied Biskupice, which was the seat of the administrative district of Gmina Jaszczów. Some of the local Jews had fled the town together with the retreating Soviet forces. Under German occupation, Jewish refugees from western Poland were relocated to Biskupice, increasing its Jewish population to 370 by the end of 1939. Between December 1940 and March 1941, an additional 270 Jews arrived from Kraków.^[2] By 1941, the influx of refugees had swelled the Jewish population of the town to approximately 650. However, the dire living conditions and rampant starvation resulted in a high mortality rate, reducing the population to around 450 by early 1942.

A Judenrat (Jewish Council) was established in Biskupice in 1940. It initially consisted of eight members, with the cabman Moszek Epelbaum (b. 1895) serving as its chairman, and the haberdasher Szmul Bursztyn (b. 1910) as his deputy.^[3] It is generally agreed that the Biskupice Ghetto was established in January 1942.^[4] However, based on indirect sources, such as Judenrat documents and the JSS archives, we may conclude that it had functioned as an open ghetto prior to 1942, when the German authorities sealed it....