Krychów is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

neighbourhood () in the administrative district of Gmina Hańsk, within

Włodawa County __NOTOC__ Włodawa County () 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 result of the Polish local ...

Lublin Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in the southeastern part of the country, with its capital being the city of Lublin. The region is named after its largest city and regional capital, Lu ...

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

World War II

During

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

in World War II, Krychów was the location of a Nazi forced labour camp 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 Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

, with several sub-camps. 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 Chełm (; ; ) is a city in eastern Poland in the Lublin Voivodeship with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some from the border with Ukraine. The ...

prison. The prewar inmates were released by Polish administration already at the time of the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

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'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

Hańsk including Krychów, Hańsk-Dwór, Osowa, 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 A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious", and ''fundus'', "farm", "estate") was originally the term used by ancient Romans for great landed estates specialising in agriculture destined for sale: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were charac ...

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 October 1936 ee Nazi Four Year Plan; Grams, 2021; Grams 2025 The aim of Hitler's initiative ...

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

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

''. Due to proximity of the

Sobibór extermination camp Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ext ...

many of the Jews who dug the

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

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

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

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 Wł ...

criss-crossed with hiking and biking trails for tourists.

References

{{Gmina Hańsk Villages in Włodawa County Holocaust locations in Poland