Krychów is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

neighbourhood ( pl, kolonia) in the administrative district of

Gmina Hańsk __NOTOC__ Gmina Hańsk is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Hańsk, which lies approximately south-west of Włodawa and east of the regional capital Lu ...

, within

Włodawa County __NOTOC__ Włodawa County ( pl, powiat włodawski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland, on the border with Ukraine and Belarus. It was established on January 1, 1999, as a resu ...

, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. In 1975–98 the settlement belonged administratively to

Chełm Voivodeship Chełm Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975–1998, superseded by Lublin Voivodeship. Its capital city was Chełm. Major cities and towns (population in 1995) * Chełm (69,100) * K ...

World War II

During occupation of Poland in World War II, Krychów was the location of a Nazi

forced labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

established in 1940 for the

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...

, with several sub-camps. Krychów forced labour camp 1940 (Krowie Bagno)

The camp in Krychów was set up by the Germans in place of a small correctional facility for short-term offenders founded in 1935 in interwar Poland, which was a branch of the Chełm prison. The prewar inmates were released by Polish administration already at the time of the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in the first days of September 1939 and the correctional centre stood empty. The Germans set up a Jewish camp there for around 1,500 men and women who were forced to build farms for the German "colonists".Aktion Reinhard Camps.
Sobibor Labour Camps.
' 15 June 2006. ARC Website. It was a main branch of several camps in

Gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

Hańsk including Krychów, Hańsk-Dwór,

Osowa Osowa (german: Espenkrug; csb, Òsowô) is a neighborhood (in the past village suburb) of Gdańsk, Poland, located about north-west from the center of the city. Mainly filled with family houses, Osowa Lake with sandy beaches and a water sport c ...

, and Ujazdów, for the innocuous captives expelled from the neighbouring settlements. The camp in Krychów was managed by the Nazi German administration of the General Plan East preparing latifundia for the colonists brought in ''

Heim ins Reich The ''Heim ins Reich'' (; meaning "back home to the Reich") was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler before and during World War II, beginning in 1938. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all ''Volksdeutsche'' (ethnic Germans) wh ...

'' (Home into the Empire) from among the foreign ''

Volksdeutsche In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of '' volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sin ...

''. Due to proximity of the Sobibór extermination camp many of the Jews who dug the

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

ditches in these camps were simply marched under the German guard for extermination by gassing at Sobibór, along with the imprisoned

Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

Geography

Krychów is located at the heart of '' Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie'' characterized by profusion of marshlands and meadows. There is less arable land here than in other areas of the central-Polish lowland. It is a legally protected area, a part of the

Sobibór Landscape Park Sobibór Landscape Park (''Sobiborski Park Krajobrazowy'') is a protected area ( Landscape Park) created in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland in 1983. It takes its name from the village of Sobibór. The Park lies on an area of , within the Wło ...

criss-crossed with hiking and biking trails for tourists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansk-Kolonia Villages in Włodawa County Holocaust locations in Poland