Zamość Ghetto

The Zamość Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto created by Nazi Germany in the city of Zamość, Lublin province, Poland in spring 1941 and was liquidated in October 1942 when the remaining inhabitants were deported to the Belzec extermination camp.

Background
Zamość, in western Poland, was part of the Lublin district during World War II. The district comprised over 1,660 communities with more than half a million people. The Jews of the district primarily lived in towns and in the district city of Zamość, where they made up about half of the population.

Establishment
Immediately after the conquest of Poland in September 1939, Jews were conscripted for forced labor. In December 1939, the German occupiers ordered the Jews of the city to establish a Judenrat, which included 12 members. The initial chairperson was Ben Zion Lubliner. In January 1940, Mieczyslaw Garfinkel replaced Lubliner. Many Jews from the city fled to the Soviet Union and to areas conquered by it in Poland, leaving about half of the 10,000 Jews in the city. These were the individuals who were confined to the ghetto upon its establishment in spring 1941, along with about a thousand Jews expelled from western Polish areas annexed by Germany. (known as "Warthegau")

Transports
In spring 1941, the Jews were concentrated in one of the poorest areas of the city. Initially, the area was not fenced, and the Jews were allowed to enter and exit, but only for limited periods each day. On April 1, 1942, the first transport departed as part of Operation Reinhardt. On April 11, a transport departed carrying 3,000 Jews to their deaths in Belzec. On May 1, 1942, about a thousand Jews were deported from North Rhine-Westphalia through the Dortmund train station to the Zamość Ghetto.

From October 16 to 18, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and its inhabitants were sent to be exterminated in Belzec. A few hundred forced laborers remained in the former ghetto area to clean it up and sort the belongings of the murdered for German use.

Labor Camp
On November 12, 1942, the Zamość area was declared a special settlement area of the General Government for Germans. The inhabitants of the Polish villages in the area were evacuated, and part of the former ghetto area served as a temporary transit camp.