Details: Markuszow is a small town in eastern Poland about 15 miles from Lublin. About 300 Jews lived there in 1764. That number increased to about 1,000 in 1921 and 2,000 just before the Holocaust. The Yizkor book is divided into two parts: The first part, “This is How the Shtetl Looked” consists of memories and descriptions that give an overview of the political, social, religious and cultural life prior to 1955 when the book was published. The second part, “Destruction and Resistance” is dedicated to the martyrs who died in the Holocaust and contains articles by survivors of the resistance, partisans and fighters about their lives in the forests, in bunkers, and farm hideouts – a tragic and heroic chapter in the Jewish destruction and heroism during the Nazi occupation. One long section contains a wealth of detail about the people of the town: their traditions and customs, their types and personalities and their occupations. Also noted, with a wry touch, are the perils for Hasidim wearing their chalatls (long coats) when rain turned the streets to mud, a tale of a stolen cholent, the novelty of the first gramophone, the stir created among the religious when a secular book appeared. The beginning of the end came in September 1939 when the Germans bombed the shtetl laying waste to half the houses. In April 1942 about 500 Jews, mainly the elderly and the ill, were deported to the extermination camp in Sobibór about 60 miles to the east. On May 9, 1942, the remaining Jews from the ghetto were deported to the gas chambers at Sobibór and the Jewish community ceased to exist. May this book be a memorial to those who lived, worked and dreamed and died in Markuszow.   Alternate names for the town: Markuszów [Pol], Markushov [Yid], Markushuv [Rus], Markushev Markuszów, Poland is located at 51°22' N 22°16' E and 82 miles SE of Warszawa.   Nearby Jewish Communities: Kurów 3 miles WNW Wąwolnica 8 miles SW Koñskowola 9 miles WNW Michów 10 miles N Kamionka 11 miles NE Bełżyce 13 miles S Puławy 13 miles WNW Kazimierz Dolny 14 miles WSW Baranów 15 miles NNW Lublin 15 miles ESE Wieniawa 15 miles ESE Jeziorzany 16 miles N Firlej 17 miles NE Janowiec 17 miles W Majdanek 17 miles ESE Lubartów 17 miles ENE Chodel 18 miles SSW Głusk 19 miles SE Opole Lubelskie 20 miles SW Bobrowniki 20 miles NW

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