In 1900 Bychawa had 2,800 inhabitants, including 2,294 Jews who constituted 81% of the total population of the town, as a result of Russian discriminatory regulations. In the second half of the 1930s, due to the worsening economic situation and intensifying anti-Semitic atmosphere, the situation of Jews in Bychawa was systematically declined, which led to the increase in emigration rate. On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, Jewry made up only a half of the entire population in Bychawa. The Germans created a ghetto in Bychawa in December 1940 during World War II and around 2,600 Jews lived in the ghetto in 1942. Jews from Bychawa were transported to the ghetto in Bełżyce and then to the Sobibor extermination camp on 11 October 1942. Apart from regular mass exterminations in Bełżec, the Nazis also carried out individual executions around the town.