The Krychow Labor and Concentration Camp
In 1940, a labor camp with Jewish slave labor was established in the village of Krychów, near Hańsk and Wlodawa, in the Lublin district, eastern Poland. Jewish prisoners, including those from local areas and deportees from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany, were forced to work on projects such as regulating the Uherka River and building irrigation channels. According to the Archives of Polish Prosecutor’s Office at Lublin, the first group of Jewish workers at Krychow were transported from Warsaw in August of 1940. Prior to this, a group of Sinti and Roma transports were sent there from Hamburg.
The average number of inmates was between 1,000 and 1,200 people, but over the camp's existence, more than 20,000 prisoners passed through, with estimates suggesting over half perished due to exhaustion, disease, and brutal treatment by guards.
During the liquidation of the camp around April 1943 and in subsequent Aktionen, many prisoners were deported to the nearby Sobibór extermination camp. In November 1943, approximately 1,500 prisoners from Krychów were murdered as part of "Aktion Erntefest" (Operation Harvest Festival). The primary operators of the camp were Nazi S.S. men Theodor van Eupen and Johann Loeffler (originated in Chemnitz district). Van Eupen was killed by partisans near Jędrzejów on December 11, 1944.
Krychów is located at the heart of Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie — which is characterized by profusion of marshlands and meadows. Due to this, there is less arable land at this location than in other areas of the central-Polish lowland. Another name for this area is Krowie Bagno.
