In the second half of September 1939, a Red Army unit occupied the Polish town of Sokolow Podlaski, but after a week they with drew according to the Molotov-Ribentrop Pact. Many Jewish youngsters left town with the retreating Red Army. Soon after, the German Wehrmacht marched into town. On the first days of the German occupation Jewish males were kidnapped for slave labor and abuse.

An open ghetto was established in two streets around the main synagogue. Jews, newly evicted from their homes, were forced to move to those two streets. Traffic in and out of the ghetto was permitted, and the Jews could buy products from nearby Polish farmers.

However, the situation deteriorated. On the evening of Yom Kippur 5703 (10 October, 1942) the Sokolow Ghetto was liquidated. The Jews were herded to the market square and transported in sealed cattlecars directly to nearby Treblinka, where they were promptly exterminated upon arrival.

This postal card (with 2 extra stamps) has an angular September 29, 1942, date stamp to mark when it was sent from Paris. It was received in nearby Kosow Lacki on October 8, 1942 but was returned because by the time it arrived in Sokolow Podlaski, the ghetto had been liquidated.

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