On March 15, 2017, a group of students with their history professor John C. Swanson from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga took part in a study tour to Izbica, Zamość and the Museum – Memorial Site in Bełżec.

The combined visit to the three places aimed at showing the history and heritage of Polish Jews and the course of events during the Second World War in the context of the functioning of the death camp in Bełżec.

Prior to the Second World War, about 95% of the Izbica community was Jewish. The main occupation and source of income of the Jews in Izbica were trade and crafts. In the 19th century, Izbica became an important Hasidic center. In the interwar period, as in the whole country, there were economic, cultural and social changes. During the Nazi occupation, Izbica was transformed into a transit ghetto to which Polish, German, Austrian, Czech and Slovak Jews were brought.

By the Second World War, around 12,000 Jews lived in Zamość (less than 40% of the population). Most of them left the city because of the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1939. During the German occupation, the number of Jews in Zamość increased due to the deportation of German and Czech Jews. The liquidation of the ghetto in Zamość began shortly after the opening of the death camp in Bełżec. In the autumn of 1942, the Jews in the ghetto were forced to leave the city and rushed to the Izbica transit ghetto, from where they were transported to the camps in Bełżec or Sobibór, or they were shot at the local Jewish cemetery.

In the Museum – Memorial Site in Bełżec, young Americans got to know the history of the camp, symbolism of the commemoration and the institution's basic activities.