Before Operation Reinhard
Before the War
Founded in the late 16th century by Jan Zamoyski as an ideal Renaissance city, Zamość soon became home to a vibrant Jewish community. From the early 17th century onward, Jewish merchants, artisans, and intellectuals settled there, contributing significantly to the city’s prosperity and cultural diversity.
By the early 20th century, Jews made up about 40 percent of Zamość’s population. The community’s rich religious and social life revolved around its magnificent synagogue, study houses, charitable institutions, and numerous cultural associations.
Before World War II, Zamość was recognized as a center of Jewish learning, Zionist activity, and trade in southeastern Poland. Many Jews worked as merchants, tailors, and small-scale industrialists, while others engaged in education and publishing. The city’s architecture—particularly the synagogue and surrounding houses—reflected the coexistence of multiple cultures that had shaped Zamość’s character for centuries.
Mordechai Canin, reflecting after the war, wrote:
“The old fortress city of Zamość is known to the world because of Yitzhak Leib Peretz. It was not the noble Zamoyski family that made the city famous, but the Jewish master writer. In Zamość there was one of the oldest Jewish communities in Poland. Jews lived here even before the town itself was founded — they were its soul and body. The local synagogue was among the oldest monuments of Jewish architecture in Poland, and in the old cemetery rested generations of scholars, rabbis, and pioneers of new Jewish thought.
Before disaster struck the Polish Jews, about sixteen thousand lived here: artisans and merchants, workers and shopkeepers, and a significant Jewish intelligentsia. The city was a fortress, but within it stood two greater strongholds that shaped Jewish life more profoundly than its walls—Hasidism and the Haskalah. Zamość had a rich Jewish life, with schools and libraries, a Jewish press, political movements large and small, workers’ organizations, Hasidic prayer houses, and dozens of associations. And as in every other city, the Jews of Zamość dreamed of a better world.”
During the German Occupation
When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Zamość was swiftly occupied and incorporated into the so-called General Government. At that time, around 12,000 Jews lived in the city — including professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, as well as merchants, craftsmen, and workers.
Persecution began immediately: Jews were forced to wear identifying armbands, perform hard labor, and surrender their property. The German authorities also deported Jews from surrounding towns to Zamość, overcrowding the community and worsening conditions.
The Zamość Ghetto (Transit Ghetto)
In April 1941, the Nazis established the Zamość Ghetto in the northern part of the city. Thousands of Jews—local residents and those brought in from nearby areas—were forced into cramped, unsanitary housing.
Hunger, disease, and violence pervaded daily existence. The ghetto was sealed off from the outside world, and contact beyond its boundaries was forbidden. German and auxiliary police carried out random shootings and arrests.
During Operation Reinhard
Between April and October 1942, the ghetto was liquidated during Operation Reinhard, the Nazi plan to annihilate the Jews of the General Government. At the same time, trains from across Europe arrived in the small city — including two transports from Theresienstadt and one from Dortmund at the end of April and early May 1942.
Deportations and Liquidation
The liquidation of the Zamość Ghetto took place in several stages during 1942, as part of Operation Reinhard.
May 11, 1942 – Deportation to Sobibór: Following the arrival of transports of Jews from Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Theresienstadt), another large group of Jews from Zamość was deported to the Sobibór extermination camp.
August 1942 – Deportation to Majdanek: In August 1942, several hundred remaining Jews were sent to the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp near Lublin.
Final Deportations – To Izbica and Beyond: The remaining thousands were marched on foot to Izbica, a town about 20 kilometers away, which served as the last transit ghetto of the region. From there, they were deported in transports to both Bełżec and Sobibór, where they were killed.
Mala Schatzkammer, a survivor, testified in 1961:
“I hid inside an apartment within the ghetto and thus survived the first two ‘resettlements,’ which took place in April and later. I was among the last Jews remaining in Zamość. The transport consisted of several thousand people, forced to march on foot to Izbica. From my hiding place in the ghetto garden, I could still search for my brother. On the road from the marketplace to the train station, I saw heaps of corpses and pools of blood.”
She also recalled witnessing the first deportation: “From a garden plot in the city center, I saw bodies on the streets, heard the screams and pleas of women and children, and the continuous sound of gunfire.”
By the end of 1942, the Jewish community of Zamość had ceased to exist. Only a handful survived the deportations, hiding in the surrounding countryside or joining partisan groups.
After Operation Reinhard
A few survivors returned after liberation but attempts to rebuild Jewish life in Zamość proved impossible. Some emigrated abroad, while others moved to larger Polish cities. The synagogue—desecrated during the war and later used as storage—stood abandoned for decades.
Since the 1990s, restoration and commemoration efforts have revived the memory of this once-thriving community. The restored Zamość Synagogue now serves as a center for Jewish culture and remembrance, hosting exhibitions and educational programs.
