Zamość

May 28, 2025 – Biłgoraj to Zamość – 55 kms – Hotel Sukcesor

May 29, 2025 – Zamość – Hotel Sukcesor

Gordon:  We are enjoying our first rest day in the attractive small city of Zamość.  With the assistance of an Italian architect it was built from scratch as a model Renaissance city starting in 1580.  Through good luck it has survived relatively intact to the present day.  Zamość was given a UNESCO designation as a good example of a planned Renaissance city outside of Italy.

Yesterday we enjoyed a pleasant ride through a heavily forested national park. We had lunch by a wetland area, where we were treated to the raucous calls of the common European crane, as well as a chorus of frogs and other birds.  It was magical.

However, as we move through this charming natural and cultural landscape we keep bumping into places of horror.  Yesterday we noticed a small graveyard with a monument as we passed through the small village of Sochi.  Further investigation disclosed that this was the site of mass murder by the Nazis in 1943.  Enraged by Polish partisan activity in the area, the Nazis killed most of the residents of the village in a single day.

Here in Zamość, one of the old city fortifications, called the Rotunda, was used by the Nazis as a transit facility and place of execution.  Six to eight thousand people were executed in this modest circular fortification, with many others passing through on their way to extermination camps.  The pre-war population of Zamość was almost 50 percent Jewish; shortly after the end of the war it was five.  While many of the victims of the Rotunda were Jewish, many other residents, particularly teachers, lawyers and other community leaders, also perished here.

The suffering endured by the residents of this region during the war challenges comprehension, particularly when you realize that it occurred within the lifetime of our parents.  I can’t imagine picking up the pieces at the end of the war and going on with your life, particularly if many members of your family and surrounding community were lost during those few years.