79 years ago, almost with the beginning of the German-Soviet war, the Nazi policy of persecuting the Jews of Europe changed dramatically. In the summer of 1941, at first sporadically, but soon systematically and diabolically methodically, the realization of the Nazi dogma of the need to eliminate the "Jewish threat" began. Thousands of people have fallen victim to anti-Jewish pogroms, killings and humiliation on the streets of large cities, remote towns and villages. Later, mass shootings on the outskirts of cities, in ravines and anti-tank trenches became an element of everyday life of the Nazi "new order".
To this day, we do not know the names of all the victims of the Nazi genocide. Apparently, we will never know for sure. Decades of controlled amnesia "Soviet-style" have helped to destroy family and public memories of the Holocaust tragedy and to hide the traumas of the past. Stadiums and residential quarters were built on the sites of mass shootings, productions or just landfills were organized, and sports halls and warehouses were arranged in the buildings of shrines and temples.
Obviously, we are unable to prevent tragedies that have already become a fact of the past. However, we can resist the seemingly inevitable forgetting of the victims. After all, it is, in fact, a second and, perhaps, final murder. Finally, we, regardless of denomination or ethnicity, can honor those who were part of this country before us and whose descendants we are on this earth.
We bring to your attention the message of Tetiana Fedoriv - historian, public figure, researcher of the history of the Jews of Eastern Galicia. The text concerns one of the sites of Holocaust tragedies in the author's hometown of Zbarazh. Places unjustifiably forgotten and removed from public memory even now, almost thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet empire. We hope that this is just the beginning on the way to the proper honoring of our compatriots of Jewish origin - the inhabitants of Zbarazh, killed by the Nazis in early July 1941.
Yehor Vradii
«Palisade of forgetting»
In Zbarazh, Ternopil region, there are many monuments associated with the large Jewish community that in the early 20th century was a third of the city's population. According to Henryk Ślaski in his guidebook, as of 1934, 2,598 Jews lived in Zbarazh. It is known that during World War II the number increased to 5,000 Refugees from Western Poland arrived in the city, as well as displaced Jews from Skalata, Hrymailova and Pidvolochysk.[2].
During the Nazi occupation of Zbarazh, six actions of mass murder of the city's Jewish population were carried out as part of Operation Reinhard. As a result, after the war, only about 60-70 people from the city's Jewish community survived [3].
Two mass graves are silent witnesses to the tragic events that took place in Zbarazh almost 80 years ago. One of them is located on the territory of the oil depot. More than two thousand Jews were buried in it; the other is near the city stadium, where the bodies of nineteen other victims of the Nazi policy of extermination lie. However, there is another mass grave on the territory of Zbarazh - undefined, unexplored and, as a result, practically unknown to either the residents or guests of modern Zbarazh.
Marek Szmajuk recalls that on July 2, 1941, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Germans entered the city. On July 4, the SS arrived in the city and immediately burned the synagogue and began killing Jews [4]. Another eyewitness – Liljen Icchok, – provides information about the arson of the synagogue, as well as the murder of 20 Jews on the same day[5]. A resident of Zbarazh also mentions the murder of 22 Jews near the synagogue with the beginning of the occupation of Zbarazh – Bieder Leopold [6].
An eyewitness, Jakob Littner in his bookі «My path through the night» calls July 4 "Black Friday." Already at dawn, German servicemen in black uniforms appeared in the city. The author of the memoirs then thought that the men in black were "grabbers" [grave diggers - T. F.], and the black cars, they've arrived – «coffin on wheels». Jakob Littner writes, that «before noon the prologue of our tragedy took place. Both synagogues were set on fire, then came our night of St. Bartholomew. Robbery, murder and violence fell on us like a destructive hail. They did not miss a single Jewish apartment. And this was just the beginning…»[7]
The murder of a neighbor, a local grain merchant Hindes, is etched in Jakob Littner's memory. The man was killed in front of the front door of his own house. Only the next day was the body of the victim, as well as the bodies of the other victims, buried in front of the burned synagogue.
Information about the burial on the territory of the synagogue is also contained in the Memorial Book of Zbarazh. In particular, it is noted that immediately after entering the city, the Germans killed several Jews who, unfortunately, were on the street. Among them was already mentioned Mayer Hindes and his wife, Aaron Clare, Joseph Segal, Israel Sommerstein and others. Frightened by the spontaneity of the violence, the Jewish residents decided to bury the victims not in the Jewish cemetery far from the center, but in the courtyard of the Great Synagogue near the site of the tragedy [8].
The same fact was mentioned in a private conversation with the author by a former resident of Zbarazh, Joel Volkovich Drori, who now lives in the city of Ramat Yishai (Israel).
Unlike the other two mass graves, no attempt was made to explore the synagogue. And this despite the presence of numerous testimonies!
Unfortunately, today the probable burial place of the Jewish inhabitants of Zbarazh, as well as the building of the former synagogue are inaccessible to ordinary people or researchers. The territory has repeatedly changed its purpose, form of ownership and the owners themselves. Despite the lack of public information about the current manager of the building, it, like the burial place, is surrounded by a fence, which makes it impossible for citizens to access an important element of the cultural heritage of their city. This unfortunate situation is faced not only by local residents, but also by people from Zbarazh, who return to the city of their childhood and youth after many, many years. Unfortunately, it is this "fence of memory" that gives them an unfair impression of my hometown and the people who live in it, as those who care about their own history, the memory and pain of their neighbors.
I want to believe that by the next 2021 - the time of the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of the Jews of Zbarazh, the community of the city with the assistance of the city authorities will be able to overcome all objective and subjective obstacles and properly honor the memory of our residents - a cozy home many generations of Ukrainians of different ethnic origins and religions.
Tetiana Fedoriv
[1] Henryk Ślaski, Zbaraż w przeszłości i teraźniejszości. Opis historyczno-krajoznawczy powiatu z 14 ilustracjami, Tarnopol 1934, с. 38-39.
[2] Збаражчина. Збірник статей, матеріалів і споминів. Редактор Проф. д-р Володимир Жила. Наукове Товариство ім.. Т. Шевченка. Нью-Йорк – Париж – Сідней – Торонто, 1980, Т. 1, 733 с. (Український Архів, том ХХХ), с. 132.
[3] Szmajuk Marek, Relacje. Zeznania ocalałych Żydów, Sygnatura 301/2571, Archiwum ŻIH, с. 1.
[4] Там само.
[5] Liljen Icchok, Relacje. Zeznania ocalałych Żydów, Sygnatura 301/3554, Archiwum ŻIH, с. 1.
[6] Bieder Leopold, Relacje. Zeznania ocalałych Żydów, Sygnatura 301/1045, Archiwum ŻIH, с. 1.
[7] Jakob Littner, Moja droga przez noc, tł. i oprac. Maria Skalska, Warszawa 2014, с. 41-42.
[8] Sefer Zbaraz. Zbaraz: the Zbaraz Memorial Book, red. Mosze Sommerstein, Tel Aviv 1983, s. 178, nlb. 1, 45, il. https://ia801902.us.archive.org/0/items/nybc314121/nybc314121.pdf(24.01.2018), с. 39.