Izbica

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Izbica (Yiddish: איזשביצא Izbitz, Izbitze) is a village in Poland, between Zamość and Krasnystaw, in the Lublin Voivodship. Located at the Wieprz river, Izbica has roughly 2100 inhabitants.

First mentioned in 1419, the town was granted Magdeburg Law rights in 1540. A notable centre of trade and commerce, with time the town became a shtetl, that is a town inhabitated primarily by Jews. In 1760 the city charter was reaffirmed. After the partitions of Poland in 1772 the town was annexed by Austria and then reclaimed by the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809. After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte it became a part of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1827 it had 51 houses and 407 inhabitants, all of them Jewish. In the 19th century the town was a notable centre of Hasidic Judaism, particularly thanks to tzadik Mordechaj Józef Leiner and his son Jakub Leiner, who established the Hasidic dynasty of Izhbitza. After the January Uprising against Russia, in which many of the local inhabitants took part, the town was deprived of city rights and attached to the nearby commune of Tarnogóra.

After Poland regained her independence the town grew significantly. In 1921 it had roughly 3000 inhabitants, by 1939 the number grew to roughly 6000. The village grew particularly because of the Lublin-Zamość road and a railway to Zamość which opened in 1917. During World War II Izbica was the site of a German concentration camp, serving as a transfer point during the deportation of Jews from Łódź to Bełżec and Sobibór. Kurt Engels was commandant of the camp. In addition, approximately 4500 Jews were murdered at the local cemetery. The camp was closed after the last deportation on April 28, 1943 following a successful prisoner revolt.