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

The village of Wojciechów is the seat of a gmina (municipality or commune) some 25 kilometers west of the center of Lublin. According to the 1921 census, fifty-three Jews lived in the municipality.^[1] The gmina comprised twenty villages, four of which had Jewish communities: Maszki (ten Jewish residents), Miłocin-Czujki (ten), Palikije (ten), and Wojciechów (twenty-three). A local witness recalls that, during World War II, a family of twelve lived in Miłocin; the father was a shoemaker, and most of the family worked at the nearby manor. Another Polish witness mentioned the head of a family named Hersz, who was a shopkeeper in Palikije.^[2] Francisco Wichter’s family, originally from Markuszów (in the Puławy County), moved to Palikije on the eve of the war.^[3]

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 Governor (Kreishauptmann).^[4] 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.^[5] There was a Blue (Polish) Police station in Wojciechów. The nearest Gendarmerie station was in the town of Bełżyce, 8 kilometers to the south.

On November 23, 1939, all Jews in the area were ordered to wear armbands.^[6] On January 10, 1940, the wójt (head) of the Wojciechów gmina (signature unreadable) assured the Kreishauptmann that the heads of the villages had been instructed to implement the order; on January 13, he informed him that Jews in the gmina wore the armbands.^[7]...