Introduction

Attempting to examine a specific fragment of the reality of World War II seems to be an extremely difficult task. Several factors contribute to this problem, including the increasing time interval since the events of the last century and (especially important in light of this discussion) the lack of documentation which could organise the happenings of the past. It is no different when it comes to the forced displacement of the people from the Zamość region during World War II.

The first difficulty encountered by a researcher trying to explore this issue is the incomplete documentation kept by the army and by the occupier's institutions. It is well-known that at the end of military operations, the frightened Germans tried to cover the traces of their crimes, destroying everything that could incriminate them, from files, through buildings, and often including people. An additional problem with the documentation – not only regarding the children of the Zamość region, but also children in the Majdanek concentration camp in general – is the fact that very often the presence of a minor in the camp was not recorded at all. Occasionally, the name of a child who arrived at the camp was written on the corner of the guardian's file (most often it was the mother, but there were cases when this role was performed by a grandmother, sister, or other relatives with whom the child was sent to the camp or when the child was orphaned).