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

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

Sarny is located 83 kilometers (52 miles) north-northeast of Równe. The Jewish population numbered 2,808 people in 1921 (47 percent of the total population); 3,414 (45 percent) in 1931; and 4,950 (45 percent) in 1937.

After the start of World War II in 1939, many Jewish refugees from central and western Poland arrived in Sarny. Under Soviet occupation from September 21, 1939, Jewish communal property was confiscated and Jewish institutions were disbanded. More than 1,000 of the refugees from western and central Poland, together with a few local Jews accused of “crimes against the state,” were transported to the Soviet interior. In June 1941, there were about 6,000 Jews living in the city.¹

German armed forces occupied Sarny on July 5, 1941. Following the departure of the Soviets, local Ukrainians and Poles went on a killing spree for three days, murdering a number of Jews. In July and August 1941, a military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) ran the city. In September 1941, a German civil administration was established. Sarny became the administrative center of Gebiet Sarny, which also included Rayons Klesow, Wladimirez, Dombrowiza, Rafalowka, and Rokitno, as well as Rayon Sarny. Kameradschaftsführer Huala was appointed Gebietskommissar. Leutnant der Schutzpolizei Albert Schuhmacher was made the Gendarmerie-Gebietsführer in the spring of 1942.² [End Page 1463] In the city of Sarny itself, a German Gendarmerie post was established, along with an auxiliary Ukrainian police force. The Germans appointed a lawyer named Mariniuk as city mayor, and a man named Kostermann served as the labor supervisor. From the beginning of September 1941 to March 1942, the 1st Company of German Police Battalion 320 was stationed in Sarny. It was commanded by Hauptmann der Polizei Alfred Beber.

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A view of Ul. Handlowa (Commerce Street) in Sarny during the 1920s.

USHMM WS #08011, COURTESY OF BRENDA SZYR SENDERS

Almost immediately upon their arrival, the German authorities established a Jewish Council (Judenrat) to implement their demands. A regime of forced labor was imposed on the Jews. Men were put to work clearing the destruction at the train depot and repairing the rail lines, which had been blown up by the retreating Soviet army. Women were forced to clean toilets with their bare hands. The daily quota of forced laborers organized by the Judenrat was 300 males and 100 females. The Judenrat was also ordered to deliver 70 suits, 100 pairs of boots, and 50 sets of silverware for the officers’ club, as well as an unspecified number of gold watches, chains, diamonds, and pearls.

Initially Jews were ordered to wear blue-and-white armbands with an identifying Star of David. On October 1, 1941, the armbands were replaced with a yellow circular patch on the front and back of their clothes. Jews also had to mark their homes with a blue six-pointed star. In addition, they were prohibited from leaving the limits of the city and from buying goods from non-Jews. A “contribution” of several rubles per head also was demanded from the community. Forced laborers received no monetary payment, only about 80 grams (less than 3 ounces) of bread per day. Hunger set in as the community was deprived of most basic necessities.

As additional Germans arrived, their demands increased. They required new quarters with fine furnishings. On October 28, 1941, the German Wirtschaftskommando (Economic Office) in Sarny issued an order to the Jews, giving them until October 31 to hand over all of their livestock: horned cattle, sheep, pigs, geese, and ducks. The livestock that the Ukrainians had purchased from Jews also had to be turned over. Jews were subject to a curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The synagogues were seized and turned into stables and warehouses. In December, all fur coats had to be surrendered for the use of German soldiers at the front, and in 1942 the German authorities demanded 36 kilograms (79 pounds) of gold from the Jewish population.³

The Judenrat served as the means of communication between the occupying authorities and the Jewish population, passing on and implementing German orders and regulations concerning the Jews. A Jewish police force, headed by Yona Margulies and small in size, was organized to assist the Judenrat in its tasks.

Around Passover, on April 2–4, 1942, a ghetto was created in Sarny. It existed for four and a half months. The area was surrounded by barbed wire, and Ukrainian guards were stationed at intervals of 100 meters (328 feet).⁴ Any Jew who crossed over the fence was shot on the spot. In April 1942, Jews were forcibly resettled into the ghetto from the outlying villages of Niemowicze, Czudel, Głuszyca, Horodec, Antonówka, Bielatycze, Lubikowicze, Cepcewicze, Strzelsk, and Luchcze.⁵ About 8 to 10 people had to live in a single room, and sanitary conditions were unspeakable. Sickness went untreated in the absence of medical help and drugs. A number of Gypsies—around 200 to 300 people—also were resettled into the ghetto.⁶ According to historian Yehuda Bauer, there was also a separate ghetto for craftsmen and their families, which was liquidated at the same time as the main ghetto.

On August 25, 1942, the Judenrat was summoned to receive a demand for a third “assessment” of 7 gold rubles per person. Utterly lacking such resources, people had to surrender the gold in their teeth to fulfill the quota. Worthy of note is the general respect accorded to members of the Judenrat in recognition of the impossible circumstances in which they found themselves. On that day, Ukrainian police surrounded the ghetto, and no one was sent out to perform forced labor.⁷

Yitzhak Geller organized a few men into a resistance group, named for Samson’s final cry: “Let my soul perish with the Philistines!” Among the members were Portnoy, Simcha Monk, and Moshe Pikmann. With a few rifles, pistols, and grenades stolen from the Ukrainians, they planned to blow up the power station, burn the houses in the ghetto, and create confusion so that people could run for their lives. But Neumann, the secretary of the Judenrat, threatened them with arrest and prevented them from taking any action.⁸

On the night of August 25–26, 1942, several people committed suicide. The next day, starting at 5:00 a.m., additional Jews from a number of surrounding towns in the Gebiet were brought to Sarny and held captive in a staging area next to the regional administrative center. There were 2,800 Jews from Dąbrowica, around 600 from Rokitno, 580 from Klesów, 1,000 from Bereżnica, and 150 from Tomaszgorod. The addition of these arrivals (in excess of 5,000 people) brought the total Jewish population assembled in Sarny to around 14,000.⁹

The slaughter began on August 27, 1942, at 2:00 p.m. The Jews from Rokitno were ordered to deliver the first 500 people to four pits that had been dug outside the town; then came the turn of the Jews from Klesów. At this point, 2 Jews with wire clippers and an axe cut a hole in the barbed-wire fence. Three buildings of the administrative center were set on fire.¹⁰ As people fled through the opening in the fence, they were fired on with machine guns and hand grenades. Survivors estimate that some 2,500 people were shot in the rush to the fence. Another 1,000 perished in the burning buildings. Several hundred managed to escape. The rest, about 13,000 in total, were murdered and thrown into the pits. Among the victims were about 100 Gypsies, who died protesting that they were not Jews. The local people rushed to loot whatever Jewish property was left.¹¹

The mass shootings were organized by a squad of the Security Police and SD from Równe, assisted by German and Ukrainian police.¹² The forces that participated in the shootings included part of German Police Battalion 323, subordinated to Security Division 68. The unit of this battalion, commanded by Unterführer Willi Meyer, killed around 1,400 [End Page 1464] people with machine guns in the course of two days. Meyer personally shot around 200 of them.¹³

Of those Jews who managed to escape from the ghetto before and during the Aktion, many were captured and killed by the Ukrainian and German police thereafter, but some managed to organize a partisan detachment within Rayon Sarny in October 1942. This unit was based mainly in and around the village of Karasin.¹⁴ Other escapees went into hiding if they could find sympathetic local peasants. One group of survivors mentions the courage of the “Shtundists” (Baptists), who were especially favorable towards Jews seeking help. Others found refuge with Polish villagers who feared attacks from Ukrainian nationalist partisans.¹⁵ At the end of the war, a few survivors returned to Sarny to provide a decent burial for the victims of the massacre and to erect a memorial stone in their memory.