The village of Tyśmienica is the seat of a gmina (municipality or commune) some 46 kilometers northeast of the center of Lublin. According to the 1921 census, eighty-one Jews lived in the municipality.^[1] The gmina contained fifteen settlements, four of which had Jewish communities: Babianka-kolonia (six Jews), Kolechowice-kolonia (five Jews), Kolechowice Folwark (thirty-seven Jews), and the village of Tyśmienica itself (thirty-three Jews). During the war, the Shumak family lived in the village of Kolechowice: Mechl Shaya, a cattle merchant, his wife Chava Szumak (née Nisinbaum), and their seven children (Moshe, Aleksandr, David, Chaim, Salya, Maya Mengl, and Esther).^[2]

The German army occupied the area in late September or early October 1939.^[3] The municipality was initially part of the Radzyń County of the Lublin District, under Kreishauptmann Hennig von Winterfeld. In September 1941, it was administratively reassigned to the Lublin County (Kreis Lublin-Land), where Emil Ziegenmeyer was the County Governor.^[4] The nearest Kriminalkommissariate post of the Security Police and the SD was in the town of Lubartów, 24 kilometers southwest.^[5]

It seems that in October 1939 some Jews left the gmina for the USSR. Thus, Aleksandr Shumak left his family in Kolechowice and moved – initially, to Belarus....