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

Pre-1939: Turzysk (Yiddish: Trisk), town, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941: Turiisk, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Turisk, Rayon center, Gebiet Kowel, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Turiis’k, raion center, Volyn’ oblast’, Ukraine

Turzysk is located 19 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Kowel. According to the 1921 population census, 1,173 Jews were living in Turzysk. By the middle of 1941, allowing for an annual increase of 9 to 10 persons per thousand, the Jewish population was probably around 1,400.

German forces occupied Turzysk on June 28, 1941. Soon after their arrival, German soldiers and Ukrainians looted the empty stores, and some Jews were also robbed. In July and August 1941, a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) ran the town’s affairs. In September 1941, power was transferred officially to a German civil administration. Turzysk became a Rayon center in Gebiet Kowel, within Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien. Regierungsrat Arno Kämpf was the Gebietskommissar in Kowel until June 1942, and Leutnant der Gendarmerie Philipp Rapp was appointed Gendarmerie-Gebietsführer.¹ In June 1942, Kämpf was arrested for taking bribes from Jews and executed shortly thereafter. His successor as Gebietskommissar was his chief of staff (Stabsleiter) Erich Kassner.

In Turzysk, the civil administration was represented by a Sonderführer (agricultural leader), who proved to be a great enemy of the Jews. A Ukrainian local authority was also established in Turzysk. In addition, the Germans recruited a Ukrainian auxiliary police force, which was subordinated to the German Gendarmerie post, composed of several German Gendarmes.

At the end of July 1941, shortly after the occupation of the settlement, 10 Jews alleged to be Soviet activists were shot in Turzysk.²

In the summer and fall of 1941, the German occupying forces implemented a series of anti-Jewish measures. The German authorities ordered the establishment of a Jewish Council (Judenrat), which was made up primarily of pre-war social activists. Jehuda-Leyb Ginzburg served as chairman. An unarmed Jewish police force was also established. Among the first tasks assigned to the Judenrat was the obligation to deliver a daily quota of forced laborers. These men initially were used to assist German railway officials to convert the railway to a narrower gauge, for which they were not paid. Jews were issued work cards, on which their assigned days were marked. Other forced labor tasks included agricultural work and the construction of roads and bridges.

Jews were required to wear distinctive markings in plain view from the first days of the occupation. Initially they wore white armbands with a blue Star of David, and later these were replaced by yellow patches sewn onto the front left side and the middle of the back of their outer clothing. Jewish houses were also marked with yellow symbols. The Jewish Council was required to meet onerous “contributions” in money, valuables, and useful items demanded by the German authorities. After a time the Germans started to send some Jews away to work, and these people did not return.³

In the fall of 1941, the Germans spread vicious antisemitic propaganda on posters and leaflets in the town, which scornfully accused the Jews of having assisted the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) and threatened their destruction. Further new regulations ordered Jews to surrender all their cows and goats and banned them from leaving the limits of the town. Initially the Jews received a bread ration of 200 grams (7 ounces), but this was subsequently reduced to only 100 grams (3.5 ounces). In the winter of 1941–1942, [End Page 1486] the Germans also required the Jews to surrender all their fur items for the use of the German army. After the German advance was halted in front of Moscow in December 1941, a rumor spread among the Jews that some of their surrendered furs had been recaptured by the Soviets and were being worn by the Red Army. This news was repeated with some satisfaction among the Jews. As no access to radio or newspapers was available, most information was spread by way of gossip and rumors, recycling snippets picked up by eavesdropping on the conversations of non-Jews.⁴

At some time before mid-August 1942, the German authorities established an open ghetto in Turzysk, forcibly resettling Jews there from neighboring villages. The ghetto remained unfenced, and Jews with work cards were still permitted to leave to visit their assigned work sites. For example, a number of Jews were employed regularly digging peat outside of the town.

On August 19, 1942, the Judenrat in Turzysk was confronted by a demand from the German authorities to produce half a million Karbowanez (German occupation currency), 500 good suits, and 500 pairs of shoes within 24 hours. If this demand were not to be met promptly, the Germans threatened to destroy the entire community. With great effort, the Jews managed to collect the required clothes and shoes but were unable to gather such a large sum of money.

The next day, Ukrainian police sealed off the town, not permitting any Jews to leave, shooting those they caught attempting to sneak out. Then on August 23, 1942, German forces arrived in Turzysk to liquidate the ghetto. First the Jews were ordered to assemble on the square in front of the Bet Midrash. They were instructed to bring food for one day and also to take along their most valuable possessions, as they were told that they would be transferred to the Kowel ghetto. The Germans tried to select a few specialist workers who they still needed, but at least one carpenter refused to leave his fellow Jews and remained with the main group. Then the Jews were marched in a column under close guard by the Ukrainian police in the direction of Kowel. After about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles), the Jews were ordered to stop near a clay pit used for making bricks, where a group of 10 Jews were ordered to undress and then shot. Under the supervision of several German officers, the rest of the Jews were then shot in turn. Realizing their fate, some of the Jews tried to commit suicide, and 1 even managed to seize a weapon from one of the Ukrainian guards. In the ensuing confusion, many Jews tried to flee, but most were gunned down before they could get far.

A number of Jews had hidden inside the ghetto, and when some local Ukrainians started to loot the ghetto, it seems that a few Jews may have set fire to the houses, either to deny the Ukrainians their possessions or perhaps to mask their escape. However, the Ukrainian police were still guarding the ghetto perimeter, and some fleeing Jews were forced back into the flames. When the fires eventually died down, many Jews lay dead in the ghetto and the surrounding fields. Local Poles and Ukrainians were instructed to gather the corpses and take them to the pit. They were rewarded with the possessions they found on the bodies. A number of fleeing Jews sought shelter with peasant acquaintances in the surrounding countryside, but most were caught and killed by patrols of the Ukrainian police, which scoured the area for escaped Jews over the following weeks.⁵

According to the records of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), 1,512 Jews were shot altogether in Turzysk during the ghetto liquidation and its aftermath.⁶ The mass shooting Aktion was organized by a detachment of the Security Police and SD, assisted by the German Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian auxiliary police. Also participating in the Aktion was Schutzmannschaft-Bataillon 103 from Maciejów. In 1948, four former policemen from this battalion were tried: Zaichuk, Leskovskii, Maksimchuk, and Sokhatskii.⁷