שילוח מ - Spiczyn, Lubartow, Lublin, פולין ל - Piaski Luterskie, גטו, פולין ב- 20/10/1942

The village of Spiczyn is the seat of a gmina (municipality or commune) some 18 kilometers northeast of the center of Lublin. According to the 1921 census, eighty-seven Jews lived in the municipality.^[1] The gmina consisted of twenty settlements, seven of which had Jewish communities: Charlęż (two Jewish residents), Januszówka (fourteen), Kijany Bliższe (ten), Kijany Kościelne (five), Spiczyn (twenty-eight), and Zawieprzyce (twenty-eight – eighteen in the manor, and ten in the village itself). Local Poles remembered their Jewish neighbors. Thus, Kazimiera Iwanicka from Zawieprzyce recalled:

“There were many Jews here. There was one who had a shop in Zawieprzyce; he lived near us.… There was a Jewish shoemaker and tailor in Zawieprzyce. Even the Jews from Spiczyn came here for their prayers. There were a few Jewish families here. Relations between Jews and Poles were not so good. A certain Gitla lived with us. She sold fabric.”^[2]

The German army occupied the area in late September 1939. In October that year, under German control, the municipality became part of the Lublin County (Lublin-Land) of the Lublin District, and Emil Ziegenmeyer was appointed the Lublin County Chief (Kreishauptmann).^[3]...