Ghetto in Volyncy

A significant part of the population of the town of Volynets before the war was Jews - 38 houses ^[1] .

By the beginning of the war, Jews from Germany also lived in Volyntsi. At one time they fled to Poland, and after September 17, 1939 - to the BSSR ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

The Polish refugees of 1939, who were in Volyn, spoke about the horrors of the German occupation. However, few wanted and managed to evacuate. And some of those who dared to go on a long journey to the east, soon who were shot by the Germans from aircraft, and who were forced to return ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

They managed to leave Jewish families with the families Yalov, Feiginov, Ioffe, Gore, Sverdlov, Akodis, Smirin, Shatzman. But most Jews remained ^{[2] [3]} .

On July 12, 1941, German troops occupied Volyn, and the occupation lasted three years - until July 12, 1944 ^{[2] [3]} .

Volyn residents shared the Drissa River, a tributary of the Western Dvina, into two unequal parts. The Germans, implementing the Hitler program for the extermination of Jews , organized a ghetto in the town, taking aside a small part of the town - several small streets beyond Drissa. All the Jews were driven there with the help of the police ^[1] .

All Jews were ordered to sew a white six-pointed star on the back of their clothes ^{[2] [3]} .

The ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire, and Jews were forbidden to leave without permission, but the invaders did not put up thorough guard, because few dared to flee. It was pointless to run away with children or with the elderly - the winter of 1941-42 was very early and severe, and in the forests the fugitives immediately died from the cold. It was impossible to count on the help of local residents - very rarely someone helped the Jews, because the Germans relied on the execution for this ^[1] .

The prisoners were driven for heavy forced labor to the neighboring village of Prudinki, including harvesting firewood and clearing roads ^{[2] [3]} .

There was no food in the ghetto. Some former neighbors helped a little - secretly passed on some potatoes, some beets, but many Jews were sick from hunger ^{[2] [3]} .

All the still living Jews of Volyn, about 130 (84 ^{[4] [5]} ) people, were killed on February 22, 1942 ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

On the outskirts of the village, near the road, the Germans and policemen forced the Jews themselves to dig a long, deep hole. The police, mocking the Jews, said that “your last day has come” ^[1] .

“Action” (the Nazis called the massacres they organized as such a euphemism ) was specially carried out to intimidate the local population on the market day, on the last Sunday of February, when many peasants from nearby villages arrived in Volyncy. They saw what was happening and heard shots ^{[2] [3]} .

Doomed people were lined up and shot from machine guns. There was a terrible scream. The dead fell into the pit along with the wounded ^{[2] [3]} .

After the execution, the headman walked around the village and gathered people to dig a trench ^{[2] [3]}

The child Sonia Gurevich managed to hide under the stove before being shot, but then she could not stand it from fear, got out and ran to look for her parents. The police grabbed her, took her to a trench and stabbed her ^{[2] [3]} .

Riva Tsirkina (16 years old) with her brother Leny (12 years old), at the insistence of her father, fled the ghetto. The father was left with the youngest children - and they were all killed on February 22. In the village of Yarmolino of the Verkhnedvinsk district, Riva and her brother were sheltered and hid for several months by the Petrovsky family, although they had eight children and risked their lives. After the liberation of Belarus, Lenya Tsirkin became the son of a regiment, and Riva a nurse.

In 1998, Arkady Petrovsky, his wife Maria, and the daughters of Alexander and Zinaida were awarded the honorary title “The Righteous Among the Nations ” from the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial Institute “ as a token of deepest appreciation for the assistance provided to the Jewish people during the Second World War ” . Parents were awarded medals posthumously ^[1] .

After the war, several Jewish families returned to the town ^{[2] [3]} .

In 1991, a resident of Volintsov, Maria Egorovna Bulavskaya, made a list of the victims of the Jewish genocide in the town - about 40 names, but there is no complete list ^{[2] [3] [6]} .

In Volyntsi, on the mass grave of the Jews killed during the Holocaust , a monument was erected with the inscription: "To the victims of fascism in February 1942." In 2013, a new one was installed on the site of the old monument, with inscriptions in three languages ​​- Belarusian, English and Hebrew ^[7] .

Next to the monument is the grave of the Schenkman spouses - Riva (nee Tsirkin) and Mikhail. After the war, Riva Tsirkina, who escaped from the Volyn ghetto, married ex-partisan Mikhail Shankman, in whom the Germans shot his wife and two children. Riva and Mikhail bequeathed to bury them next to the victims of the ghetto ^[1] .

• U.S. Bogau, A.F. Bubal i insh. (redcal.); A.F. Bubal. (stack.). “Memory. Verkhnyadzvinsk raion ". Gіstoryka-dakumentalnaya chronika garadoў і raѐnaў Belarusі. book 1. - Mn. : "Paligrafafarmlenne", 1999. - 526 p. - ISBN 985-6351-06-5 . (belor.)

• L. Vainovskaya. 70 years have passed since the execution of the Volyn ghetto
• Smilovitsky L. L. The catastrophe of the Jews in Belarus, 1941-1944 . - Tel Aviv: Matthew Black Library, 2000 .-- 432 p. - ISBN 965-7094-24-0 .
• Yitzhak Arad . The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the years of German occupation (1941-1944). Compilation of documents and materials, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem Publishing House , 1991, ISBN 9653080105
• Chernoglazova R. A., Kheer H. The tragedy of the Jews of Belarus in 1941-1944: a collection of materials and documents. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and more .. - Mn. : E. S. Halperin, 1997 .-- 398 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 985627902X .

• Ghetto in Verkhnedvinsky district