The liquidation of the ghetto in Bodzentyn took place in the middle of September, 1942. It was a direct effect of the so called fahrplananordnung nr 587 that was sealed and dated in Krakow 15 September, 1942.

All Jews were gathered in the city square and then brought to a town nearby, called Suchedniów. 21th/22th of September was the day of Yom Kippur. At this time of the year Jews in Bodzentyn would have prepared for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) by ordering and fitting themselves in new clothes. The apple dipped in honey was to be eaten, symbolizing their hopes of a good year to come. In the fall of 1942 the Nazis would not have it that way; on the very Day of Atonement the Jews of Bodzentyn were brought to their death in Treblinka. Loaded on cattle cars they entered the trains on their last journey. Did they know what they were to expect on their arrival? The majority was probably ignorant of the fact that they were only said to be deported elsewhere. “East” in general meant that there was no way of coming back.
 
A local painter in Bodzentyn by the name Józef Fafarski depicted the dreadful act of the ghetto’s liquidation in one of his paintings:
 

 
“The eyewitness and the inhabitant of Bodzentyn – Jan Fafara – tells: ‘The alarm started at 8 am. The bells were ringing, the gendarme and the Jewish police went from house to house, where the Jews lived, and belched the luckless people from their flats. [...] The sick, the elderly, the decrepit and children were carried out on their backs by their family members. Together with the Jews from Slupia Nowa they were taken through Wzdol Rzadowy and Michniów to Suchedniow. How many hours did [it] take? In the street, there were lying so many dead bodies of the murdered people, mainly women, the elderly and children. And next to that there were lying abandoned piles of their belongings.’ The cruel terror aimed to killing eventual resistance try-outs of the deportees in advance. In this way the instigated, disorientated and scared people were completely subordinated to the will of their executioners.”
 

The railway tracks of Treblinka. © Yad Vashem. www.yadvashem.org
 
“On the morning of September 22, 1942, the eve of Yom Kippur, the German and Polish guards surrounded the ghetto [in Suchedniów]. The members of the Jewish police were commanded to take the Jews from their homes and transport them to the market square. The concentration of the deportees and the searching of the houses began at dawn and lasted until the late afternoon. A selection [took] place in the market square, and the Jews who were fit for work were sent to Skarzysko Kamienna. The rest, some 3,000 people, were forced onto cramped transport trains and transported to the Treblinka death camp.”
 
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