The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Pre-1939: Równe, city and powiat center, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941: Rovno, raion and oblast’ center, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Rowno, Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien, and capital, Reichskommissariat Ukraine; post-1991: Rivne, raion and oblast’ center, Ukraine

Równe is located about 62 kilometers (39 miles) southeast of Łuck. At the end of 1937, about 25,000 Jews were residing in Równe, and by mid-June 1941, due to a large influx of refugees from parts of Poland occupied by the Germans, the Jewish population had increased to 28,000, despite the deportation of many refugees to Siberia for refusing to take Soviet citizenship. After the invasion of the Soviet Union by German troops on June 22, 1941, several thousand Jews managed to escape to the eastern regions of the USSR. Around 23,000 Jews remained in Równe at the start of the occupation.

Równe was occupied by units of the German 6th Army on June 28, 1941. In July and August 1941, a German military administration controlled the area. It was replaced by a German civil administration in September 1941. Under the German authorities, the city became the administrative center of Gebiet Rowno, which also included the following Rayons: Meshiritschi, Klewan, Korez, Alexandria, Hoschtscha, and Tutschin. Regierungsrat Beer became the Gebietskommissar. Gebiet Rowno was part of Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien, and the city also served as the capital of Reichskommissariat Ukraine and the residence of the Reichskommissar, Gauleiter Erich Koch.¹ In July and August 1941, an operational unit (Einsatztrupp) of the Security Police (Sipo) and SD was based in Równe. Between September 1941 and February 1942, the headquarters of the 320th Police Battalion, commanded by Major der Polizei Dall, and its 3rd Company (commanded by Hauptmann der Polizei Scharway) were deployed in Równe. As of October 1941, the 33rd Reserve Police Battalion under the command of Major der Polizei Braschnewitz was present there. In October 1941, a Security Police detachment of Einsatzkommando 5 was sent to Równe. The head of this detachment was SS-Sturmbannführer Herrmann Ling. In February 1942, this detachment was reorganized as an office of the Kommandeur der Sipo und SD (KdS) in Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien. SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Karl Pütz served as the KdS until October 1943.² It was this office that organized and carried out anti-Jewish Aktions in Równe and in the entire region of Wolhynien und Podolien. Under the Sipo and SD in Równe, there was also a Ukrainian Criminal Police force, headed by Petr Grushevski. Between August 1941 and February 1942, Równe was also the location of the headquarters of the Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer, SS-Brigadeführer Gerret Korsemann.

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A group of religious Jews pose outside a building in the Równe ghetto, ca. 1941—1942.

USHMM WS #50152, COURTESY OF IPN

The first Aktion against the Jews of Równe was carried out on July 8 and 9, 1941. On the evening of July 8, members of Sonderkommando 4a, in collaboration with Ukrainian auxiliary police units, arrested 130 Jews. They forced the victims to spend the night in the courtyard of the building of the State Bank. On the morning of July 9, the victims were shot on the edge of the city.³ The headquarters of Einsatzgruppe C, located in Równe on July 12, 1941, carried out the shooting of about 100 more Jews on the grounds of a brickyard about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Równe.⁴ Several hundred more Jews were killed by a Sipo and SD squad of the Einsatzgruppe Special Duty (z.b.V).⁵ Altogether, about 1,000 Jews were killed in the city in the summer of 1941. During the summer and fall of 1941, the German authorities introduced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Równe. Initially Jews were forced to wear armbands bearing a Star of David. In September 1941, this was replaced by circular yellow patches worn on the chest and back of their outer clothing. The Jewish population was forced to carry out physically demanding work. They were not allowed to leave the city. In addition, the Jews were forced to pay the German occupation authorities 12 million rubles (1.2 million Reichsmark [RM]) as a so-called contribution. Jews were systematically robbed and beaten by the Ukrainian auxiliary police.⁶ A Jewish Council ( Judenrat), with 12 members, and a “Jewish Order Service” ( Jewish police force) consisting of 20 people (reporting to the Judenrat) were established in Równe. The head of the Judenrat was Dr. Moshe Bergmann, the headmaster of a local gymnazium (high school).

In early November 1941, a major Aktion took place in Równe. The victims were mostly those unable to work. On November 5, notifications were distributed directing all Jews who had no work permit to appear in the Church Square (Kostel’nyi Ploshchad’) at 6:00 a.m. to wait for their resettlement. After the Jews had gathered, they were ordered to leave their luggage in the square and were herded in columns to the [End Page 1459] village of Sosenki. Near the village were several pits, dug by Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) in late October. Over the course of two days, all the Jews who had assembled for “resettlement” were shot in these pits.⁷ Ereignismeldung UdSSR [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] no. 143, dated December 8, 1941, states that “between November 6 and 7, 1941, a long-planned anti-Jewish Aktion was carried out, during which about 15,000 Jews were killed. On the orders of the Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF), the Order Police was in charge of its organization. The detachment of Einsatzkommando 5 in Równe actively participated in its execution.”⁸ The organizer of the Aktion was HSSPF z.b.V. SS-Brigadeführer Korsemann. The 315th Police Battalion (under the command of Hauptmann der Polizei Klaus) and the 320th Police Battalion, assisted by the Ukrainian auxiliary police and at least one company of the 33rd Police Reserve Battalion (company commander Hauptmann der Polizei von Wiekmann), took part in the Aktion.

In December 1941, a ghetto, declared the “Jewish residential area” (an open ghetto), was established on the edge of the city of Równe. The Jews were given several days to resettle there. In this ghetto there were about 5,200 Jews, including 1,182 children under the age of 14.⁹

In April 1942, the German mayor of the city ordered the Judenrat to have all Jews clean up the streets and yards of the Jewish quarter on Sundays, or they would face the stiffest punishment.¹⁰ On May 7, 1942, the head (Obmann) of the Judenrat, Dr. Bergmann, was instructed to appear before the German mayor the following day to discuss a specific matter. Presumably as a result of this meeting, the mayor issued a written order to Dr. Bergmann on May 8, stating that the 2,000 Jews still fit for work had to perform compulsory labor on two Sundays every month to clean up the Jewish quarter.¹¹

On May 10, 1942, Dr. Bergmann replied in a surprisingly sharp tone to the German mayor that the German offices that employed the 2,000 able-bodied Jews were opposed to their use for unskilled cleaning tasks on Sundays, as it adversely affected their ability to do their normal work. Dr. Bergmann stressed that in accordance with his responsibility for maintaining cleanliness and other public works within the Jewish quarter, he had already instructed the sanitary commission of the Judenrat to perform a variety of tasks. The few able-bodied Jews available for work on Sundays were already employed in carrying out the sanitary work required. In view of these circumstances, Dr. Bergmann noted that he had reached an agreement with the Distribution Office for the Jewish Workforce—which received its instructions from the supervisory German Labor Office—by which 100 to 150 workers would be available for the two days of work each month. He concluded: “as I ask you, Mr. Mayor, to please revise your instruction, I hope that this number, in view of the advanced spring season, will prove to be adequate for the task.”¹²

On June 19, 1942, the Judenrat in Równe complained to the German mayor that unknown persons were frequently entering the Jewish cemetery illegally and destroying or damaging gravestones. The Judenrat wanted to erect a sign warning that entering the Jewish cemetery without permission was strictly forbidden on the orders of the German mayor.¹³

The liquidation of the Równe ghetto came during the night of July 13–14, 1942. Refusing to assist the German authorities in the killing of Jews, Dr. Bergmann and another Judenrat member, Leon Sukharchuk, both committed suicide around this time.¹⁴ The 1st Company of the 33rd Reserve Police Battalion, units of the German Security Police, and members of the Ukrainian auxiliary police forced the Jews to leave their houses in the ghetto. The police herded the victims to the railroad station and forced them into freight cars. The trains transported the Jews in the direction of Kostopol. At a quarry outside the city, the Jews were shot by the German Security Police and Ukrainian auxiliary police units.¹⁵ The chief engineer of the German construction company Josef Jung of Solingen, Hermann Friedrich Graebe, was an eyewitness to the liquidation of the Równe ghetto. On November 10, 1945, he testified under oath:

Shortly after 10:00 pm, the ghetto was surrounded by a large SS detachment and three times as many Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. After that, the spotlights installed inside and around the ghetto were switched on. Groups of four to six SS men and policemen broke into or tried to break into the houses. If the windows and doors were locked and the residents were unwilling to open up, the SS and police units broke down the doors and forced their way in. The people living there were driven into the street just as they were, regardless of whether they were dressed or not. Because most Jews refused to leave their homes and offered resistance, the SS and police employed force. Finally, using whips, kicks, fists, and rifle butts, they managed to empty the houses. The victims were chased out of their homes with such haste that in some cases small children were left behind in their beds. In the streets, the women called their children, and the children called their parents. That did not keep the SS men from beating the victims to make them run along the road until they reached the freight train. One freight car after another was filled, as the women and children screamed, whips cracked, and rifle shots rang out. Because some Jewish families barricaded themselves in especially strong buildings and attempts to open the doors with crowbars and beams failed, the doors of these buildings were blown open with hand grenades. Because the ghetto of Rovno was located close to the railroad station, the younger people tried to escape over the railroad line. Since the spotlights could not illuminate this sector, it was lit up with signal flares. All night long, persecuted, beaten, and wounded people moved through the illuminated streets. Women carried their dead children in their [End Page 1460] arms. Some children were dragged to the train hanging on to the legs or the arms of their parents. The entire time, the ghetto was filled with shouts: “Open the door, open the door!”¹⁶

While the ghetto was under siege, dozens of the residents tried to escape. Some victims also attempted to jump off the moving trains. Most of the escapees were young people, who formed groups or roamed in the forests on their own. Before long they joined up with Soviet partisan units, especially that of Major General Vassily Begma. After the liquidation of the Równe ghetto, the German and Ukrainian police systematically searched the ghetto territory for hidden Jews. Those found and captured were shot in the area of Belaia Street in Równe. The number of victims is not known. Altogether in the city of Równe between 1941 and 1943, between 22,000 and 23,000 Jews were murdered.

During the liquidation of the Równe ghetto on July 13 and 14, 1941, a few dozen Jews managed to hide with Graebe’s help. From the chief of staff of the Gebietskommissar, Ordensjunker Beck, Graebe obtained a document stating that Jewish workers of the Jung company (100 people) were not subject to the Aktion, and during the night he protected a house in which Jewish workers were sleeping from intrusion by the Ukrainian police and SS. After the Aktion was over, he sent the Jewish workers to Zdołbunów.¹⁷ Another small group of Jews from the Równe ghetto was saved by the initiative and support of some Ukrainian civilians. One of them, Iakov Sukhenko, was shot in 1943 for helping the Jews.¹⁸

In 1947, Gerret Korsemann was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was released in 1949 and died in Munich on July 16, 1958.