שילוח מ - Konopnica, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ל - Belzyce, Lublin, Lublin, פולין ב- 09/10/1942

Konopnica, a gmina (municipality, rural commune) some 10 kilometers west of the Lublin city center, comprised fifty-eight villages and rural communities. In 1921, it was home to 122 Jews.^[1] The 1921 census recorded the existence of Jewish communities in the villages of Helenów (six), Konopnica (twenty-two), Marynin (fifteen), Motycz (twenty-two), Radawiec Wielki [Duży] (ten), Sławinek (thirteen), Uniszowice (eight), Węglin (twenty-two), Wola Sławińska (one), and Wola Sławińska [Szerokie] (three).^[2] We have little information regarding the exact numbers of Jews in these places on the eve of World War II. Zygmunt Sobczak, a Pole from Radawiec Duży, recalled that three Jewish families (names unknown) lived in his village before the war.^[3] Motycz, too, was home to three Jewish families, one of which was the family of Holocaust survivor Tzvi Rozenberg. Tzvi's father, Chaim Mendel Yosef Rozenberg, was a horse and cattle merchant; the second local family was that of a tailor, while the head of the third one owned a small food store.^[4] Tzvi Rozenberg's mother was called Roza, and he had eight siblings – Faygah, Gitel, Abraham, Leah, Yosef, Yedidyah, Kalman, and Motel.

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] 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.^[6]

The nearest Gendarmerie posts were in the city of Lublin and in the neighboring gmina of Niedrzwica, some 13 km south. Fryderyk Tomke [Thomke], the head of the Gendarmerie station in Niedrzwica, was notorious for his cruelty toward the local Jews.^[7] Niedrzwica also had a Blue (Polish) Police station, and Tomasz Kubot served there.^[8]...