The transit ghettos set up by Germans were an important infrastructure element in the process of extermination of European Jews during the Second World War. They served to imprison the Jewish population from the Lublin district and from abroad, mainly from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, in places convenient for the subsequent efficient implementation of the “Operation Reinhardt.” The transit ghettos were located mainly in small towns in the Lublin region, near the railway lines connecting the three German Nazi extermination camps: Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka. Moreover, these places were filled with both local Jews and displaced persons from other parts of Poland which had been incorporated into Germany, mainly from the so-called Reichsgau Wartheland. The Germans referred to these towns as “the main collection and transhipment points”; they were in fact only a stopover on the way to annihilation.

The first and at the same time the largest transit ghettos were established by Germans in Piaski and Izbica, both connected by the road with Bełżec, the first German Nazi extermination camp, which began to operate in March 1942. The third transit ghetto was  in Rejowiec, near Chełm, at the intersection of the railway lines to Bełżec and Sobibór. The successive ghettos of this type were set up by Germans in, among others, Opole Lubelskie, Lubartów, Łuków, Kraśniczyno, Chełm, Dęblin, Zamość, Puławy, Międzyrzec Podlaski, Siedliszcze, Włodawa and Bełżyce. The greatest number of transports with Jews to the transit ghettos occurred in the first half of 1942. However, they were preceded by a selection in Lublin, where men able to work were sent to the German Nazi Majdanek concentration and extermination camp. Then, from mid-May 1942, most of the transports, bypassing the transit ghettos, went directly to the German Nazi extermination camps, mainly to Sobibór. Therefore, the transit ghettos lost their raison d'être. The last ones were liquidated by the occupant in September 1942.

A particular feature of the transit ghettos was the fact that in these places the local, mostly poor and Orthodox Polish Jews encountered those from other countries who were assimilated and secular. German, Austrian, Czech Jews arrived here with the hope of finding “a quiet life and a decent job.” This contrasted with the situation and knowledge of Polish Jews, who were much more aware of the realities of the German occupation - they had already experienced terror, plunder, as well as life and functioning in the ghetto. The difference in the perception of the actual reality by Jews from different European countries was also visible during the deportations from ghettos to the German Nazi extermination camps. While Polish Jews were looking for hiding places, unsuspecting newcomers from the West humbly obeyed the order given by the Germans to report to the transport. Tomasz Blatt, a pre-war resident of Izbica comments on this as follows: “The SS appeared in the Judenrat building and presented an ultimatum: Everyone under fifteen and over fifty-five must show up at the market square or they will be shot. German and Austrian Jews, staying in Izbica at that time, became totally disoriented due to their ingrained typical German orderliness, respect and submission to the authorities. Polish Jews assessed the situation more realistically and tried to evade their tragic fate. They knew  that “displacement” meant death and made desperate attempts to hide. On the other hand, German Jews, despite all the warnings from their Polish co-religionists, did not imagine that they could show disobedience and fail to carry out the orders of the authorities. They showed up at the assembly point in no time."

Pre-war Izbica was a typical small Jewish town - a shtetl, about which Philip Bialowicz wrote in his memoirs: "as in most such Polish towns it was full of small houses, unpaved streets, modest shops, there was also a marketplace." They were inhabited almost exclusively by Orthodox Jews - 5,000 of them, 95% of the total population, while there were about 200 Christians living in the town (mainly in the outskirts, engaged in agriculture). According to Blatt, “most of the Jews in Izbica were small traders and craftsmen. Their shops were on Main Street and around the Market Square."

Due to fact that it was a “Jewish” town conveniently located  - in a valley, on three sides surrounded by hills, on the fourth by a river - immediately after the occupation of Izbica in 1939, Germans established there a gathering point for Jews from occupied Poland. The first transport to arrive in Izbica brought a group of about 1,000 people from Greater Poland. Moreover, Jews from Łódź also ended up here. Subsequent transport of this type was carried out in March 1941, in connection with the establishment of the ghetto in Lublin by the Germans. About 2,000 Lublin Jews were driven to Izbica at that time.

In March 1942, with the commencement of Operation Reinhardt, the Izbica ghetto began to function as a transit ghetto, the last stop on the way to the biological liquidation of Jews from outside Poland. At the same time, Germans initiated the deportations of the ghetto inhabitants to Bełżec, to make room for those transported from abroad. The first such group were Czech Jews brought from Theresienstadt on 11 March. Each subsequent transport from abroad brought about 600–1000 people. Most of the deportees were from Germany (about 10,000 people in total), and there were also 4 transports from Vienna (4,000 people), 2 from Slovakia (over 2,000 people) and one more from Theresienstadt (altogether 1,600 people from that ghetto). In total, about 25,000 Jews passed through the ghetto in Izbica. However, due to the ban on sending correspondence by Jews from abroad, it is currently very difficult to estimate how long individual families stayed in Izbica or in other transit ghettos.

From April 1942, some of the transports were pre-selected in Lublin, therefore mainly old people, women and children were driven to Izbica - people perceived by the Germans as incapable of work. Yet, being a worker was the main factor in getting a minimum of livelihood and avoiding deportation to the German Nazi extermination camp. Another way was barter trade. However, there was little work for Jews, mainly in the surrounding farms, for example in the Smorczewskis' estate in Tarnogóra, but also in labour camps set up by the Germans, e.g. in the tailor workshops in Augustówka. Hard work made the body extremely exhausted, which was additionally exacerbated by the difficult living conditions in the ghetto.

Firstly, Izbica was constantly overcrowded. As Blatt recalls, despite the fact that "sometimes the actions literally emptied Izbica, it was quickly populated by subsequent trainloads of foreign Jews from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia." The number of ghetto prisoners constantly fluctuated around 10,000 people. The houses were mostly wooden and very primitive. Moreover, it often happened that several families lived in one room, and “all the social buildings belonging to the city were overcrowded. During the day, people crowded the streets, and at night, during curfew hours, they squeezed into every corridor, every corner and every crevice of houses,” recalls Blatt. Besides, the town did not have a sewage system, only public wells in the market square were accessible. On top of that, many flats were also without electricity. Thirdly, the ghetto had serious problems with providing supplies for such a large number of people. There was a folk kitchen which gave only half a litre of “soup” a day per person. It consisted of water and unpeeled potatoes. As a result of the above factors - overpopulation, hunger and poor sanitation – there was a rapid spread of diseases such as diarrhoea and typhus, about which, as Blatt writes, the Jews of Izbica felt “completely helpless - there was simply nothing we could do about it. People were saying that cigarettes protect against typhus, so I started smoking.” In the face of the epidemic, a makeshift hospital was established in a devastated former synagogue, but due to unavailability of medicines and remedies, even excellent doctors from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany could not help much.

The fourth factor poisoning the daily existence of Izbica's inhabitants was the constant terror, concern for the close ones and themselves. German functionaries, especially the SS men - the Gestapo commandant Kurt Engels and his deputy Ludwig Klemm, spread fear. Blatt recollects an incident with their participation: “When I looked out the window I saw Engels entering the balcony of the Goldberg family’s house, which was in front of the workshops. At the same time, my friend Perec Dorfsman, who lived in this house, ran down the stairs to the yard. I think that, like me, he wanted to hide in the workshop. Unexpectedly, he came face to face with the Gestapo men. He tried to slip away, but Engels and Klemm, grinning, pressed him against the wall. He was trapped. ‘Please, please don't shoot! Let me live!’ he cried, his voice pleading. There was a moment of silence, and then Engels calmly said, ‘Go home.’ Perec, with evident relief, turned and ran back. As he started climbing the stairs, Engels shot him in the back with a double-barrelled shotgun. Perec staggered, but still managed to climb halfway up the stairs, where he was hit with a second fatal bullet. Dead Perec slumped down the stairs. Similar scenes took place in many Jewish homes. On that day, Engels killed 35 Jews." Białowicz remembers  that: “soon after Engels had another idea of killing. Together with Klemm, they went around the town every few days or rode around with motorbikes and, in a murderous frenzy, killed a few people at a time, encountered on the street or still sleeping in their houses. We all ran away then and hid wherever we could - in underground closets, under beds, in any place, as long as it could conceal us.”

Throughout the functioning of the Izbica ghetto, Germans organized deportations of the Jews confined there to extermination camps. The preparation of the deportation actions is described by Blatt as follows: “The typical Action began suddenly and usually without any warning. Sometimes, however, we were forewarned a few hours before the departure by an empty train of freight wagons waiting at the station. This town, located in the valley, seemed to be perfect for such actions. Izbica was surrounded at dawn. Ukrainian soldiers lay hidden in the bushes covering the hills around and growing along the bank of the Wieprz River. In this way, they formed a tight cordon around the town. When Izbica was encircled, another group of Ukrainians who entered the town together with the SS troops started their work.” In advance, the list of persons to be displaced was prepared by the Judenrat (Jewish Council), and the Jews included in it were to report for the transport. Such a list was changed many times, because in fact there were two antagonistic towards each other Judenrats in Izbica: a Jewish council that was established at the beginning of the occupation, composed of Polish Jews, and a second one, founded by Jews who came from abroad, set up unofficially to represent their interests. On a similar basis, there were two Jewish police units that assisted the SS men in finding people listed for deportation. Polish policemen, the so-called "blue", often took part in the search. People who were unable to march to the railway station, for example the elderly and the sick, were murdered by the SS men on the spot, in front of the other Jews gathered there.

In accordance with Heinrich Himmler's order of 19 July 1942, on the final “resettlement” of Jews unable to work from the General Government to extermination camps by 31 December, in the autumn the Germans carried out three "actions" to liquidate the transit ghetto in Izbica. The first two took place on 18 and 19 October 1942; the latter is called "the black day in Izbica". At that time, only those who were unable to work were not included in the deportation to the German Nazi camps in Bełżec and Sobibór. Several thousand people were deported, but also in the town itself, Germans shot dead several hundred Jews. The third "action" was carried out on 2 November 1942. The hiding Jews were to be found by Polish firefighters in exchange for any of their valuables they would grab. People found in this way were herded to the fire station, and then in small groups they were shot by Germans at the local cemetery. After the liquidation of the transit ghetto in Izbica, Germans set up a residual ghetto for Jews captured in the area, where they were imprisoned until April 1943. Then Germans deported them to the Sobibór extermination camp.

Based on the text published by the "Studnia Pamięci" (Well of Memory) Society.