Situation of Jewish population in Krasnystaw County during the German occupation...
Some of people tried to manage by buying necessary goods on the black market and selling out their valuable goods and properties49. At the turn of 1941 and 1942 sanitary conditions were extremely worsened and it caused the typhus epidemic. The fight against the disease was extremely cumbersome deue to lack of medicaments, provisional conditions in the local hospital isolation hospital where Jews from other towns were also hospitalized50. The situation was also worsened by contribution executed by the Judenrat and members of the Jewish Order Service51. In December 1941 first information about mass murders on Jews in death camp in Chelmno upon Ner reached to Izbica probably via unofficial correspondence and fugitives. Brutality and scale of the action were unimaginable for most people who couldn’t realized the purpose of German policy52. Influx of transports from areas included to the Reich and from abroad, good location, near the important railroad caused that Izbica was transformed into “Transit ghetto” which first had to be emptied of Polish Jews in Action “Reinhard”53. The liquidation of the ghetto in Izbica proceeded in stages. First action began at dawn March 24, 1942.54 The town was surrounded by a line of Ukrainian camp guards who, together with the Germans, carried out house searches. Deportation was led by Germans who included into the action the Judenrat and Jewish Order Service. Concentration point was in the main square where Jews were brought and selected. During the action about 2000–2500 people were taken, mostly children, elderly people and sick55. Jews were ordered to take only food and little baggage. Many of them, afraid of their lives, prepared hideouts before. Toivi Thomas Blatt characterize them in the following words: „[…] there was two kinds of hideouts. Little ones could be found in almost every house. In little basement or hole under the floor two or three persons could hide. The wooden 49 Only wealthy Jews could afford to purchase items on the black market. Archiwum Ringelbluma…, pp. 142–143, 145; J. Chmielewski, Izbica…, p. 200. To Izbica came smugglers from Warsaw who beside trading activity also brought informations about the prevailing situation. AŻIH, cat. no. 301/5953, Relacja Stefana Sendłaka, sheet 4. The increase in trade intensity was associated with the influx the Jews from abroad in the spring of 1942. Ibid., cat. no. 301/6269, Relacja NN, sheet 3. 50 T. T. Blatt, op. cit., p. 42; P. Bialowitz, J. Bialowitz, op. cit., p. 68. Director of the hospital was dr Henryk Mariedstrauss. AŻIH, cat. no. 211/453, Korespondencja Prezydium ŻSS z Radą Żydowską i Delegaturą ŻSS w Izbicy n/Wieprzem 11.V.1941–30.IV.1942, sheets 19–20; Ibid., cat. no. 211/606, Korespondencja Prezydium ŻSS z Komitetem Powiatowym ŻSS w Krasnymstawie 3.I.1942–15.V.1942, sheet 26. In spring 1942, an infectious hospital functioned in the synagogue. Ibid., cat. no. 301/1303, Relacja Käthe Leschnizer, sheets 7–10; Ibid., cat. no. 301/5953, Relacja Stefana Sendłaka, sheet 5; R. Kuwałek,, op. cit., pp. 151–152. 51 T. T. Blatt, op. cit., p. 43. 52 Ibid., pp. 36–37; P. Bialowitz, J. Bialowitz, op. cit., p. 68; J. Chmielewski, Izbica…, pp. 195–196. 53 R. Kuwałek, op. cit., pp. 138–160; J. Chmielewski, Izbica…, p. 196. 54 The anonymous relation for Oneg Shabbat states that the action started in the evening. Archiwum Ringelbluma…, p. 141. Nabel Enoch gives the date 16 February 1942. which is unlikely, because at that time there was still deported to extermination camps. AŻIH, cat. no. 301/52, Relacja Nabela Henocha, sheet 5. 55 The anonymous author said that at the time this action was displaced about 3,500 Jews. Archiwum Ringelbluma…, p. 141; AŻIH, cat. no. 301/52, Relacja Nabela Henocha, sheet 5; Ibid., cat no.301/5953, Relacja Stefana Sendłaka, k. 11. R. Kuwałek gives numer of 2200 Jews. R. Kuwałek, op. cit., s. 150.
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