SIENKIEWICZÓWKA
Pre-1939: Sienkiewiczówka (Yiddish: Senkevitshivka), village, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941: Senkevichevka, raion center, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Senkewytschiwka, Rayon center, Gebiet Luzk, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Senkevychivka, Horokhiv raion, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukraine
Sienkiewiczówka is located about 38 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Łuck. After World War I, the Jewish population was 120 out of a total of 500 inhabitants. On the eve of World War II, there were about 60 Jewish families living in the village.
Forces of the German 6th Army occupied Sienkiewiczówka on June 26, 1941. In July and August 1941, the village was controlled by a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur). In September 1941, authority passed to a German civil administration. Sienkiewiczówka became a Rayon center in Gebiet Luzk, within Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien. The Gebietskommissar in Lutzk was Regierungsassessor Lindner.1
In Sienkiewiczówka, the Germans set up a local Ukrainian administration and an auxiliary Ukrainian police force. The Ukrainian police was subordinated to the local Gendarmerie post that consisted of a few German Gendarmes.
In the summer and fall of 1941, the Germans introduced a number of antisemitic measures in Sienkiewiczówka. A Jewish Council (Judenrat) of five people was created, through which the Germans passed on instructions and regulations to the Jewish population. The Jews were ordered to wear distinguishing markings in the image of the Star of David and, after September 1941, in the form of a yellow patch. They were ordered to hand over all hard currency and items of value. Jews had to perform forced labor, and they were not permitted to leave the limits of the village.
According to Jewish survivor Sonia Resnick-Tetelbaum, in February 1942, the German authorities established a ghetto in Sienkiewiczówka. All the Jews were collected together on a few streets, and additional Jews from the surrounding villages were also resettled there. About 500 people lived in the ghetto altogether. There was considerable overcrowding in the ghetto, with entire families having to share one room. The ghetto was subjected to blackout restrictions at night, and Jews were forbidden to trade with non-Jews. Despite these restrictions that threatened the death penalty, Czech farmers living nearby would bring the Jews food.2 Information gathered by Rafael Noachowicz from local non-Jewish inhabitants indicates that the ghetto was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by the Ukrainian police. Twice a week the peasants were allowed to enter the ghetto to sell bread or flour to the Jews, but otherwise all contacts were forbidden. Jews were rationed to 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of bread per person. Nonetheless, Jewish craftsmen manufactured items to trade with the local farmers illegally.3
On or around October 5, 1942, a unit of the Security Police and SD, assisted by the Gendarmerie and Ukrainian local police, surrounded the ghetto. The Jews from the ghetto were rounded up, loaded onto trucks, and taken to a site at a railway crossing near the railway station, where two large trenches had been prepared. Here the Jews were made to undress and then forced to lie down flat in the trenches in groups of 4. Then a German dressed in an apron stepped on top of the Jews and shot them in the back of the head. In the very first truck were women carrying children in their arms. Before going into the trench the names of all the Jews were recorded. Thus, the Germans would know how many Jews were [End Page 1468] missing so that they could search for them. In between groups the German marksman would take swigs to drink before reentering the trench.4 Soviet sources indicate that more than 800 Jews were shot in the Senkevichevka raion, but this figure may be too high.5
In 1942, there were 11 Jews killed in the village of Uhrynów, 6 Jews killed in the village of Hubin, and 6 Jews killed in the village of Dębowa Korczma.6
SOURCES
Some brief information about the Jewish community of Sienkiewiczówka can be found in the following publications: “Sienkiewiczówka,” in Shmuel Spector, ed., Pinkas ha-kehilot. Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Poland, vol. 5, Volhynia and Polesie (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1990), pp. 148–149; and V. Nakonechnyi, Kholokost na Volyni: Zhertvy i pamiat’ (Lutsk, 2003), p. 24.
Documentation regarding the persecution and murder of the Jews of Sienkiewiczówka can be found in the following archives: AŻIH (301/2814); DAVO; GARF (7021-55-13); VHF (# 9702); YIU (no. 458); and YVA.
NOTES
1. BA-BL, BDC, SSHO 2432, Organisationsplan der besetzten Ostgebiete nach dem Stand vom 10. März 1942, hg. vom Chef der Ordnungspolizei, Berlin, March 13, 1942.
2. VHF, # 9702, testimony of Sonia Resnick-Tetelbaum (born 1924), 1995.
3. AŻIH, 301/2814, information gathered from local non-Jews by Rafael Noachowicz.
4. Ibid.; YIU, Témoignage no. 458.
5. P.T. Tron’ko et al., Istoriia mist i sil URSR, Volyns’ka oblast’, (Kiev, 1970), 26:201. This source gives the number of 800 victims. A memorial stone placed at the site in 1990 is inscribed with the number of 1,293 Jewish victims, but this figure is considerably too high; see Nakonechnyi, Kholokost na Volyni: Zhertvy i pamiat’, p. 24.
6. GARF, 7021-55-13.
