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

Pre-1939: Stolin, town and powiat center, województwo poleskie, Poland; 1939–1941: raion center, Pinsk oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Beras’tse voblasts’, Republic of Belarus

Stolin is located 56 kilometers (35 miles) east-southeast of Pińsk. In 1921, 2,966 Jews were living in Stolin (62.4 percent of the town’s total population).

The local population greeted the Red Army with joy when it occupied the town in the second half of September 1939. Under Soviet rule, about 20 Jewish families were deported to Siberia. In June 1941, the Jewish population was probably about 5,000, owing to the influx of many Jewish refugees from Poland in the fall of 1939.

Following the German invasion of June 22, 1941, the first German units passed through Stolin on July 12. At this time, local Ukrainians started a pogrom against the Jews, but the intervention of a Jewish Self-Defense force managed to contain the violence. A man named Urbanovich was appointed head of the local militia. His subordinate, Mitior, raped Jewish women repeatedly.¹

On August 10, 1941, forces of the 2nd SS-Cavalry Regiment conducted a mass shooting of Jewish men in the nearby town of Dawidgródek, after which the women and children were driven from the town. Many of these refugees, as well as some from other villages, made their way to Stolin, where the Jewish Council (Judenrat) prevailed on the authorities to permit them to stay.²

On August 22, 1941, the new German Gebietskommissar arrived in Stolin to set up a civil administration. Stolin became the administrative center of Gebiet Stolin, incorporating the Rayons of Dawid-Gorodok and Wysozk, in addition to Stolin itself. SA-Standartenführer Dziembowski was named Gebietskommissar, and his deputy was a man named Stark.³ On his arrival, Dziembowski ordered the Jews to parade and appointed Nathan Bergner, a refugee from Łódź who spoke German, as chairman of the Judenrat. With the assistance of a small Jewish police force, the Judenrat had to pass on and enforce all the German demands and regulations. Immediately, Dziembowski imposed an extensive list of anti-Jewish measures. Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David on [End Page 1478] their clothing. All Jews over the age of 16 had to perform forced labor. Jews were forbidden to pray in the synagogue, forbidden to eat fat or meat, and prohibited from engaging in conversation with Christian peasants. In addition, a “contribution” of 1 million rubles from the Jews had to be paid within 30 days.⁴

With great effort, the Judenrat managed to raise the contribution within a few days, but shortly afterwards 50 Jews were arrested by the local police as alleged Communists. Most were released after payment of a further ransom, but 2 young Jews were taken out and shot in the Zotishia Forest.

In the fall of 1941, a German Gendarmerie post was established in Stolin, which took over responsibility for the local police (renamed Schutzmannschaft). Wilhelm Wacker served as head of the Gendarmerie post from April 25 to July 4, 1942. In August and September 1942, the 1st Squadron of Polizeireiterabteilung II was stationed in Stolin. Its commander was Oberleutnant der Polizei Heinz-Dieter Teltz. The anti-Jewish Aktions conducted in Gebiet Stolin in the summer and fall of 1942 were coordinated by the Security Police outpost (Sipo-Aussendienststelle) in Pińsk, which from May to November 1942 was commanded by SS-Sturmscharführer Wilhelm Rasp. In July or August 1942, a Security Police post also was established in Stolin, subordinated to Rasp in Pińsk.

In the spring of 1942, the Gebietskommissar tried deputy police chief Mitior for his abuse of Jewish women and sentenced him to death. Shortly afterwards, the head of the police, Urbanovich, was killed by Soviet partisans on his way back from Pińsk. The Jews feared a terrible reprisal, as the Gebietskommissar took a roll call under the watchful eye of the German and Ukrainian police to see whether any Jews had joined the partisans. Since none were missing, the Gebietskommissar took other measures to restrain the Jews instead.⁵

In May 1942 (on the eve of the Shavuot holiday), Gebietskommissar Dziembowski ordered the Jews to move into a ghetto, which was surrounded by a tall barbed-wire fence. They were joined by Jews from the neighboring villages, raising the total population to around 7,000. The ghetto area, enclosed on one side by the Bank River, consisted of America Street, part of Kostsushki Street on both sides as far as the house of Rabbi Ephraim Tessler, and also Burkan Street and both sides of Dąbrowski Street. Jews were permitted to bring with them only what they could carry in their arms.⁶ Living conditions were poor, with the inhabitants receiving a daily ration of only 200 grams (7 ounces) of bread. Typhus, dysentery, and diphtheria were rife.⁷ The ghetto was closely guarded, and the Jews who worked outside could bring nothing in or out. As one survivor recalled, “[T]he death rate reached 12 per day. Many times I saw how a mother threw a wrapped bundle—a child—on the wagon. People were swollen, deformed.” Jews were also forced to pay a poll tax of 10 rubles per month.⁸

By early September, news reached Stolin of the liquidation of the Dąbrowica ghetto nearby. Rebbe Moysheleh Perlov tried to raise people’s spirits, exclaiming with complete faith, “Jews, we will once more merit the defeat of Amalek and imminent salvation!” (Amalek is a biblical figure who led his army to attack the Jews [Exodus 17:8–16]. Yizkor books frequently use the term Amalek [or Amalekite] to refer to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis, and the comparison is still made today.) One Jewish survivor made a memorable visit to the Rebbe on the eve of the Aktion. SS guards and Ukrainian policemen were already positioned around the ghetto. “Suddenly, the Rebbe raised both his hands in the air and called out with great feeling, ‘Our Father, our King, have pity on us and our children’ [a line from the prayer ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ (‘Our Father, Our King’), traditionally said on the High Holidays and during times of extreme crisis], and burst into bitter tears.”⁹

The Germans liquidated the Stolin ghetto on September 11, 1942. Just prior to the Aktion, the Gebietskommissar summoned the Judenrat. He had them arrested, and they were taken out and shot, becoming the first victims. Perhaps as a result, plans for resistance within the ghetto were not realized. On September 10, a detachment of the Security Police commanded by Rasp arrived from Pińsk. During the night, men of the 1st Squadron of Polizeireiterabteilung II and the Ukrainian police surrounded the ghetto. Then at 4:30 a.m., about 6,000 Jews were driven into the marketplace in front of the ghetto. Those unable to walk were shot in their beds.¹⁰ A doctor, a dentist, and about 10 artisans were released, as their work was still required. The Germans and their collaborators then marched the Jews in groups under close escort to a wooded area 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) northeast of town, where the SD men Petsch, Balbach, Dohmen, and Kotschi shot them in a large trench. The clothes of the Jews were collected in a pile to one side of the ditch.¹¹

The next day, the Germans searched the ghetto, looking for Jews in hiding. They shot those they found.¹² Very few Jews managed to escape from the ghetto and survive with the partisans until the Red Army recaptured the area in 1944.

Wilhelm Rasp committed suicide in West Germany in the early 1960s while under investigation for war crimes. Adolf Petsch and Heinz-Dieter Teltz were sentenced to 15 years and to 3 years and 6 months in prison, respectively. Dohmen died not long after the war. The fates of Balbach and Kotschi remain unknown.¹³