On this day in 1942, the first roundup of Jews from the Chelm Ghetto, in German-occupied Poland, took place. The roundup, which started on the eve of Shavuot and lasted until May 23, was undertaken by the Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, or the Jewish Order Police of the Ghetto. Before the roundup, the Germans ordered all able-bodied Jewish men to clean attics and cellars, preventing them from hiding. They were then kept under guard at the ghetto’s beit midrash (Torah study hall) until the Gestapo arrived. Upon entering the ghetto, the Germans charged the Jews with sabotage and shot 200 Jews immediately. 4,300 more were deported to the Sobibor extermination camp. Most of the victims were local to the area, but the transport also included Jews who had been deported to the Chelm Ghetto from Slovakia. The May liquidation of the Chelm ghetto was just one of many that occurred throughout 1942 that devastated the Jewish community of Chelm. There were only a few dozen survivors from the city, but they were forced to abandon it due to postwar antisemitism. In 1939, Jewish residents made up half of Chelm’s population; in the 1990s, some survivors returned to restore the cemetery wall and erect a memorial, but there are no Jews living in the city today.