page_title: Ethnic cleansing of Zamojszczyzna by Nazi Germany
section_title: Deportations to concentration camps
hierarchical_section_title: Ethnic cleansing of Zamojszczyzna by Nazi Germany / The forcible depopulation of Zamojszczyzna / Deportations to concentration camps
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Dziewczęta polskie w niemieckim obozie pracy w Dzierżąznej k. Zgierza. W obozie tym były więzione m.in. dziewczęta z Zamojszczyzny.English: Polish girls in Nazi-German labor camp in Dzierżązna near Zgierz. Among the child prisoners were Polish girls resettled from Zamojszczyzna (1942-1943)
context_page_description: The ethnic cleansing of Zamojszczyzna by Nazi Germany during World War II was carried out as part of a greater plan of forcible removal of the entire Polish populations from targeted regions of occupied Poland in preparation for the state-sponsored settlement of the ethnic German Volksdeutsche. The operation of mass expulsions from Zamojszczyzna region around the city of Zamość was carried out between November 1942 and March 1943 on direct order from Heinrich Himmler. It was preplanned by both, Globocnik from Action Reinhard and Himmler, as the first stage of the eventual murderous ethnic cleansing ahead of projected Germanization of the entire General Government territory.
  In Polish historiography, the events surrounding the Nazi German roundups are often named alternatively as the Children of Zamojszczyzna to emphasize the simultaneous apprehension of around 30,000 children at that time, snatched away from their parents transported from Zamojszczyzna to concentration camps and slave labour in Nazi Germany. According to historical sources the German police and military expelled 116,000 Polish men and women in just a few months during Action Zamość.
context_section_description: The camp in Zamość (pl), located on S. Okrzei street, served as the transit point for selections and further deportations. In the first month of Action Zamość the camp processed 7,055 Polish inhabitants of 62 villages. People were divided into four main categories with the following code letters: "WE" (re-Germanization), "AA" (transport to the Reich), "RD" (farm-work for the settlers), "KI" (Kindertransport), "AG" (work in the General Government); and finally, "KL" (concentration camp). Those expelled from Zamojszczyzna to perform slave labour in Germany were loaded onto trains departing for temporary displacement camps governed by main resettlement HQ in Łodź. People from the last group were sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Majdanek.
  The camp in Zamość processed 31,536 Poles according to Germany's own records, or 41,000 based on postwar estimates. Dispossessed Polish families were sent to other transit camps as well including Zwierzyniec in the Zamość County, which processed 20,000-24,000 Poles (12,000 between July and August 1943). Transit camps existed in Budzyń, Frampol, Lublin (on Krochmalna street), Stary Majdan, Biłgoraj County, Tarnogród, Wola Derezieńska, Old Wedan, Biłgoraj and also in Puszcza Solska. Race selections based on forcible abduction of children from their parents were conducted in all of them. The term "Children of Zamojszczyzna" originates from the multitude of those locations.
  I have seen with my own eyes how the Germans took children away from their mothers. The act of their forcible separation shook me terribly... The Germans beat them with whips until the blood flew in case of slightest opposition, mothers and children alike. One could hear moaning and crying throughout the entire camp on those occasions... I have also seen small children being killed by the Germans. – Leonard Szpuga, farmer expelled from Topólcza 
  Children suffered the most in those camps. The average stay lasted several months. Starvation, cold, disease were fatal for them a lot more often than for adults. Separated from their parents, children were transported in cattle wagons (100 up to 150 children in one wagon) to other destinations. Many of them were sent to the concentration camp for children run side-by-side with the Łódź Ghetto. Kinder KZ processed up to 13,000 children. News about enormous drama of children from Zamojszczyzna quickly spread through entire country. Polish railwayman were forwarding messages about transports to inhabitants of the cities where transports were stopping by. There were several stations where ordinary people took a chance and risked rescuing the children, like in Sobolew, Żelechów, Siedlce, Garwolin, Pilawa and Warsaw. Another deportation action, called Operation Werwolf, was conducted during the summer of 1944 ahead of the Soviet advance. Many of the inhabitants were forced to evacuate after being previously transferred into these areas by Germany as early as 1939.  Entire families ended up in concentration camps at Majdanek (up to 15,000 prisoners of Action Zamość) and Oświęcim, before deportation to forced labour in the Reich. At Majdanek, due to severe overcrowding, entire train-loads were kept in open fields numbered from III to V.
caption: Polish girls at a Nazi-German camp in Dzierżązna near Zgierz. Among the prisoners were children resettled from Zamojszczyzna (1942-1943)
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