Lublin Umschlagplatz
About five kilometers from the ghetto in Lublin and next to a slaughterhouse lay umschlagplatz (relocation site). It was from here SS deported Jews from the ghetto to the extermination camp in Belzec, about 100 kilometres southeast of Lublin. Between March 17 and April 11, some 26,000 Jews were deported to Belzec and murdered. Those who were to be deported were forced to walk to umschlagplatz.
Current status: Partly preserved/demolished with memorial tablet (2009).
Location: 51°15'15.21"N 22°36'25.39"E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Arad, Yitzhak: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka – The Operation Reinhardt death camps (1987).
Umschlagplatz fell into oblivion after the war and the area quickly fell into disrepair and only in 1990 a small memorial plaque was set up. Very little is known about how umschlagplatz looked like and the area is not historical explored. Umschlagplatz is located next to a closed slaughterhouse in a dilapidated industrial area and the area can not be visited without the permission of the landowner. However, the landowner (anno 2009) has promised not to exploit the site but is waiting to find a buyer who wants to take on the site and establish a worthy commemoration. The site is not easy to find because it is located in an industrial area where hardly anyone speaks English or German. But it actually makes it a little more exciting too.