STEPAŃ
Pre-1939: Stepań, town, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941: Stepan’, Sarny raion, Rovno oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Stepan, Rayon center, Gebiet Kostopol, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Stepan’, Sarny raion, Rivne oblast’, Ukraine
Stepań is located approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Równe. According to the census, 1,337 Jews lived in [End Page 1476] Stepań in 1921. In mid-1941, assuming a natural growth rate of 9 people per 1,000 per year, there would have been some 1,600 Jews in Stepań.
Units of the German 6th Army occupied Stepań in July 1941. Before the German infantry arrived, the Luftwaffe bombarded the town, killing several Jews and damaging many houses. In July and August of 1941, the town was governed by a series of German military commandant’s offices (Ortskommandanturen). The military confiscated foodstuffs, bicycles, and other items from the Jews but did not treat them harshly. From September 1941, command was transferred to a German civil administration, and Stepań became part of Gebiet Kostopol. The Gebietskommissar was SA-Standartenführer Löhnert, and the Gendarmerie-Gebietsführer was Leutnant der Schutzpolizei Wilhelm Wichmann.1 There was a Gendarmerie post in Stepań, as well as a squad of Ukrainian police. The head of the Gendarmerie post in Stepań from the fall of 1941 was Beckmann; in 1943, he was killed by partisans.
In the summer and fall of 1941, the Germans implemented a number of anti-Jewish measures in Stepań: Jews were required to wear distinctive symbols (first, an armband bearing the Star of David and, later, a yellow circle on their clothes); they were compelled to engage in forced labor (e.g., repairing the bridge over the Horyn River); and they were forbidden to leave the town. They were also subjected to systematic robberies and beatings by the Ukrainian police, who supervised them at work. The Ukrainian police chief was named Sasha Krumf. The Germans harassed the Jews, cutting off the beards of old men. On the orders of the head of the Gendarmerie post, Beckmann, Jews had to surrender all gold and valuables. Later, fur coats, cattle, and horses were confiscated as well. Jews from the surrounding villages were ordered to bring these items to Stepań to hand them over to the Germans.2
In early October 1941, a ghetto was created in the town.3 The ghetto was located in the same district as the synagogue. The ghetto territory was surrounded by a 3-meter-high (9.8-feet-high) wooden fence, the top of which was covered with barbed wire. Another fence divided the ghetto into two parts: the synagogue and the adjacent street were reserved for adult men under the age of 55. The nearby streets were for women, children, and the elderly. A small group of skilled workers was allowed to live outside the ghetto. Not long after the construction of the ghetto, Jews from the surrounding villages—Chorost, Kryczylsk, Wołosza, Wielke Werbcze, and Kazimirka—were also concentrated there.4 Altogether, there were approximately 2,000 Jews in the ghetto.5
A Judenrat was placed in charge of the ghetto. The Jews were brought together in the main synagogue and ordered to elect a chairman of the Judenrat. They chose Avraham Guz for this position, and Josef Vaks, who knew German well, as vice-chair. However, Guz stepped down under pressure from Vaks, who then assumed his position. Dodye Guberman was made secretary. A majority of the Jews saw Vaks as arrogant and unsympathetic and resented his leadership. A Jewish police force was organized to carry out the orders of the Judenrat and the Germans. An upper chamber of the synagogue was turned into a jail for Jews who disobeyed the ghetto police.6
Among the responsibilities of the Judenrat was the selection of able-bodied men to meet German demands for forced labor. Groups of Jews were sent out of the ghetto daily to work in the vicinity of Stepań and return in the evening. A large number of Jewish males was sent to a labor camp in Kostopol. At regular intervals, they would be returned to the ghetto and replaced by fresh workers.7 Peasants could also “rent” Jews to work for them in the fields by paying the Germans a small fee.8
The Jews in the ghetto suffered from hunger and severe overcrowding. The daily ration for men consisted of 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of bread and a bowl of soup with potatoes or onion. Women and children received only 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of bread and the same watery soup. Jews were forbidden to receive any fat, and the commandant of the Rayon even checked the bowls of the Jews to enforce this ban. Nevertheless, the Jews made a concerted effort to maintain public health in the ghetto. There was a hospital with a walk-in clinic run by Drs. Ashkenazi and Zamer. They sent nurses to maintain sanitary conditions and make house calls in the women’s ghetto. A refugee from Łódź named Rayzman was in charge of sanitation for the men’s ghetto.9
In the spring of 1942, the Jews made an effort to celebrate Passover. Local rabbis ruled that matzot could be made out of rye. There were also a series of self-declared prophets, mainly laymen, who pointed to various omens and numerological formulas to prove to their brethren that redemption was on its way.10
The ghetto was liquidated on the night of August 21, 1942: approximately 50 Jews incapable of marching were killed on the spot, several hundred Jews were able to escape, and the rest of the Jews were driven to Kostopol and shot near the village of Korczewie; on the way to the killing site, another 50 to 60 Jews were killed. As the Jews were taken to the killing site on wagons, many escaped simply by jumping off the wagons and running into the forests. Near Korczewie, approximately 1,500 Jews from Stepań were shot; some Jews were able to flee from the shooting place.11
The German Gendarmerie and Ukrainian police organized roundups for Jews who had fled, over the course of which several hundred Jews were captured and shot. In particular, one mass shooting of Jews captured during the roundups took place in September 1942 near Kolen’.12 For informing on Jews, the occupants gave a reward of 1 liter (1 quart) of kerosene, and the punishment for hiding Jews was death. Despite this, several Ukrainian families hid Jews and provided them with produce, thanks to which these Jews were able to survive and lived to see the liberation in January 1944.
According to the documents of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), 731 civilians were killed in Rayon Stepan in 1941–1944, including 553 Jews (not counting those Jews who were taken to Kostopol and shot near Korczewie).13 [End Page 1477]
SOURCES
An article about the annihilation of the Jewish population of Stepań can be found in: Shmuel Spector, ed., Pinkas ha-kehilot. Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities: Poland, vol. 5, Volhynia and Polesie (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1990), pp. 145–147. There is also a memoir of the Holocaust period by Moyshe Voshtshina (Michel Woszczyna): Der mentsh iz shtarker fun ayzn: Mayne yorn unter di Natsis in Ukrayine (Buenos Aires, 1991). The author is a Jew from the nearby village of Korost who was interred in the Stepań ghetto. As well as containing ample information about the ghetto, this memoir provides a rare look into the fate of village Jews in the Third Reich’s Occupied Eastern Territories during World War II.
Documents and testimonies regarding the persecution and murder of the Jews of Stepań can be found in the following archives: AŻIH (see, e.g., the recollections of Mosze Woszczyna [also available at the USHMM, RG-02.208M, reel 16, no. 107] or 301/1268 and 2363); DARO; GARF (7021-71-71); 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; Yehsaʿyahu Fri, “Beyn mitsrey avadon ve-shikul,” in Ganuz and Fri, eds., ‘Ayartenu Stepan’ (Tel Aviv: Irgun yots’e Stepan yeha-servivah be-Yisrael, 1977), pp. 221–222. Also see Y. Fri, “Haftsatsot ha-Germanim ve-hakamat ha-Geto,” p. 280; and Meir Grinshpan, “Aharitah shel Stepan,” p. 299—both in Ganuz and Fri, Ayartenu Stepan.
2. Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” pp. 222–225; Grinshpan, “Aharitah,” p. 299. Also see Y. Koyfman and Avraham Tekhor, “Hurbana shel kehilat Stepan,” p. 274; and Yitshak Vaks, “Beyn hayim le-mavet,” p. 286—both in Ganuz and Fri, Ayartenu Stepan. And see Voshtshina, Der mentsh, pp. 51–52, 67.
3. The report of A. Dereczyński, AŻIH 301/1268, gives the date of October 5, 1941, for the establishment of ghettos in all the Rayon centers of Gebiet Kostopol.
4. M. Pinchuk, “Vtecha z pekla,” in Tsinoiu vlasnoho zhyttia (Rivne: Uporiadnyk Kyrylo Kindrat, 1995), pp. 187, 191; Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” pp. 223–226; Koyfman and Tekhor, “Hurbana,” p. 274; Fri, “Haftsatsot,” p. 280; Voshtshina, Der mentsh, p. 77. Note that according to Voshtshina and a few other sources, the ghetto was not created until January 1942 (see Vaks, “Beyn,” p. 286; and Grinshpan, “Aharitah,” p. 299).
5. Spector, Pinkas ha-kehilot, 5:145–147, gives the figure of 3,000 Jews inside the ghetto.
6. Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” p. 224; Koyfman and Tekhor, “Hurbana,” p. 275; “Yosef Vaks—Y oshev Rosh ha-Yudenrat be-Geto Stepan,” in Ganuz and Fri, Ayartenu Stepan, pp. 300–301; Voshtshina, Der mentsh, pp. 77–78. Note that while Koyfman states that the Judenrat was chosen in August 1941, Voshtshina claims that it was chosen in January 1942, around the time that the Jews were forced into the ghetto. Other accounts from the yizkor book also imply that the Judenrat was selected immediately before or after the establishment of the ghetto.
7. Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” pp. 224–226.
8. Voshtshina, Der mentsh, p. 82.
9. Ibid., pp. 78–81; Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” p. 226; AŻIH, 301/1268.
10. Fri, “Avadon ve-shikul,” pp. 228, 230; Koyfman and Tekhor, “Hurbana,” pp. 274–275.
11. GARF, 7021-71-71, pp. 4, 17–18; Fri, “Avadon veshikul,” pp. 231–232. Also see Y. Fri, “Sipurey nitsulim” p. 293; and Batya Sheynboym, “Beriha me-maltaʿot harotsehim,” p. 294—both in Ganuz and Fri, Ayartenu Stepan. Grinshpan, “Aharitah,” p. 299, gives the date of the liquidation as August 24.
12. GARF, 7021-71-71, pp. 8, 10; M. Pinchuk, “Tragediia y Stepani,” in Tsinoiu vlasnoho zhyttia, p. 96.
13. GARF, 7021-71-71, pp. 1–3.
