TEOFIPOL’
Pre-1941: Teofipol’, town and raion center, Kamenets-Podolskii oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Teofipol, town and Rayon center, Gebiet Isjaslaw, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Teofipol’, Khmel’nyts’kyi oblast’, Ukraine
Teofipol’ is located 63 kilometers (39 miles) northwest of Proskurov. According to the 1939 census, there were 1,266 Jews living in the town (36.9 percent of the total population). An additional 183 Jews lived in what was then the Teofipol’ raion.
In early July 1941, units of the German 6th Army occupied the town. During the two weeks from the start of the German invasion on June 22, 1941, a small number of Jews were able to evacuate to the east. Some Jewish men were conscripted into the Red Army or enlisted voluntarily. Probably around 1,000 Jews remained in Teofipol’ at the start of the occupation.
In July and August 1941, a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) governed the town. The German military set up a local administration and an auxiliary police force, commanded by P.T. Pasechnik. In September 1941, authority passed to a German civil administration. Teofipol’ was incorporated into Gebiet Isjaslaw; SA-Oberführer Knochenhauer became the Gebietskommissar.1 In Teofipol’ itself, a German Gendarmerie post was established, under which the Ukrainian auxiliary police served.
In the summer and fall of 1941, a series of anti-Jewish measures were introduced in Teofipol’. A Jewish Council ( Judenrat) was formed. Jews had to wear distinguishing marks bearing the Star of David, and they were ordered to perform forced labor. Jews could not leave the borders of the town; and they were subjected to systematic robbery and assault by the local Ukrainian police.
In late 1941 or in January 1942, the German authorities established a ghetto in Teofipol’.2 Jews from the surrounding villages were also resettled there. For example, 29 Jews were brought in from the village of Shiben.3 The ghetto was liquidated on January 21 and 22, 1942. On January 21, all the men—more than 400 people—were shot. On January 22, the women and children were shot.4 In total, 970 people were killed.5 In June 1942, another 85 Jews were shot in the village of Iampol’.6
SOURCES
A brief article on the persecution and murder of the Jews of Teofipol’ can be found in Navichno v pam’iati narodnii: Teofipol’shchyna u Velykii Vitchyznianii viini 1941–1945 gg. (L’viv, 1995). The concentration of the Jews from the surrounding villages and the ghetto in Teofipol’ are also mentioned in I.S. Finkel’shtein, “Massovoe unichtozhenie evreev Podolii natsistskimi palachami v 1941–1944 gg.,” in Katastrofa i soprotivlenie ukrainskogo evreistva (1941–1944) (Kiev, 1999), p. 77; and in Handbuch der Lager, Gefängnisse und Ghettos auf dem besetzten Territorium der Ukraine (1941–1944) (Kiev: Staatskomitee der Archiven der Ukraine, 2000), p. 87.
Documentation regarding the destruction of the Jews of Teofipol’ can be found in the following archives: DAKhO (3784-1-32, pp. 19, 35; R863-2-38, p. 128); and GARF (7021-64-816).
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. GARF, 7021-64-816, p. 200; Navichno v pam’iati narodnii, p. 95.
3. GARF, 7021-64-816, p. 169.
4. Navichno v pam’iati narodnii, pp. 95–96. DAKhO, 3784-1-32, pp. 19, 35, indicates that the Jews were brought into Teofipol’ from the surrounding villages on Janaury 10, 1942, and that 1,540 people were shot there only two days later, as cited by Finkel’shtein, “Massovoe unichtozhenie evreev Podolii,” p. 77.
5. GARF, 7021-64-816, p. 200. According to another source, there were 1,400 victims; see Navichno v pam’iati narodnii, p. 95. This figure, however, is likely too high because the total Jewish pre-war population was 1,449, and a few hundred people were able to evacuate or enter the army.
6. GARF, 7021-64-816, p. 200.
