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

Pre-1939: Torczyn, village, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941 and 1944–1990: Torchin, raion center, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Tortschin, Rayon center, Gebiet Luzk, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Torchyn, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukraine

Torczyn is located 88 kilometers (55 miles) west-northwest of Równe. According to the 1921 census, there were 1,480 Jews living in Torczyn. By the middle of 1941, it is estimated that around 1,700 Jews were living there.

The village was occupied by parts of the German 6th Army at the end of June 1941. In July and August 1941, Torczyn was administered by a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur). In September 1941, control was passed to a German civil administration: Torczyn became a Rayon center within Gebiet Luzk, in Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien. The Gebietskommissar in Łuck was Regierungsassessor Heinrich Lindner.¹

In Torczyn, a local Ukrainian administration was formed with a Rayonchef and a Ukrainian auxiliary police unit, which was subordinated to the German Gendarmerie post after its establishment in the fall of 1941.

In the summer and fall of 1941, the German authorities introduced a number of anti-Jewish measures in Torczyn: a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was formed, headed by Leizer Karsh, through which the German occupation authorities conveyed orders and instructions to the Jewish population. A Jewish police force was also established to assist the Judenrat. The Jews were forced to wear distinguishing marks, initially an armband bearing the Star of David, after September 1941, a yellow patch on their chests and backs. Jews were ordered to hand over all their gold and valuables. They had to perform forced labor, such as laying cables, for which they received only some bread and a watery soup. They were forbidden to leave the limits of the settlement; and they were subjected to systematic robbery and beatings by the Ukrainian police.

On August 2, 1941, German security forces conducted an Aktion in Torczyn. They arrested 284 people accused of collaborating with the Soviet authorities and shot them in the woods near the village of Buiani.² The mass shooting probably was carried out by a detachment of the Security Police that was deployed at that time in Łuck.

In February 1942, the German authorities ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Torczyn. The approximately 1,500 Jewish inhabitants of the settlement were given only 10 minutes to dress and grab some of their belongings before being forced into a few Jewish houses in the center of the settlement, which were surrounded with barbed wire. In addition, a number of Jews from neighboring villages were brought to Torczyn, raising the population of the ghetto to more than 2,000 people. There was considerable overcrowding, with five or six families sharing each house. A river ran through the area of the ghetto, but the water was undrinkable. The only Jews permitted to leave the ghetto were those on work details organized by the Judenrat and some craftsmen who also received better food.³

At the time of Passover (April 2, 1942), the Jews of Torczyn were able to obtain flour to bake matzot with the permission of Gebietskommissar Lindner in Łuck. There was also a kitchen organized by the Judenrat, which distributed soup and bread. Some Jews managed to barter their remaining possessions for food with the local non-Jews and sneaked the food in past the guards.⁴ In May 1942, 150 young Jews who were fit for work were sent away, allegedly to a labor camp.

On August 23, 1942, a detachment of the Security Police and SD from Łuck arrived to liquidate the ghetto, assisted by the Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian police.⁵ The police forces surrounded the ghetto; after selecting out about 14 specialist workers, who were put into a warehouse, the remaining Jews were taken away on trucks to the old Jewish cemetery at the end of Sadovskaia Street. Here a large pit had been prepared the day before. Nearly 2,000 people were ordered to undress and then shot in the pit.

There was little in the way of organized resistance in the ghetto, but a number of Jews managed to escape on the night before the Aktion, and many others went into hiding at the time of the roundup. Unfortunately, most of them subsequently were caught by the Ukrainian police and shot over the ensuing days and weeks. Few Jews were able to survive. Some Ukrainian families (for example, the Krut’ family) hid Jews and helped them survive until the Germans were driven from Torczyn in February 1944.