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

Pre-1939: Włodzimierzec, town, województwo wołyńskie, Poland; 1939–1941: Vladimirets, raion center, Rovno oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Wladimirez, Rayon center, Gebiet Sarny, Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Volodymyrets’, raion center, Rivne oblast’, Ukraine

Włodzimierzec is located 34 kilometers (21 miles) west-northwest of Sarny. In 1921, the Jewish population was 1,262 (43 percent of the total population). Allowing for a natural increase of approximately 9 or 10 people per 1,000 each year, by the middle of 1941 there would have been approximately 1,500 Jews in Włodzimierzec. They were joined by a number of refugees from Brześć and other towns following the German occupation of central and western Poland. [End Page 1494]

Four days after the German invasion on June 22, 1941, about 500 young men, Jews and non-Jews, were mobilized in Włodzimierzec. They were sent to Sarny and organized into a battalion. As the Red Army withdrew, German forces captured the battalion. The Jews were then separated out and murdered.

Units of the German 6th Army occupied Włodzimierzec on July 17, 1941. In July and August 1941, a German local military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) administered the village. By September 1941, the German civil administration had taken over and incorporated the town in Gebiet Sarny as a Rayon center. Kameradschaftsführer Huala became the Gebietskommissar, and from the spring of 1942, Leutnant der Schutzpolizei Albert Schumacher was the Gendarmerie-Gebietsführer.¹ In the town, a German Gendarmerie post was established, with several Gendarmes, who also supervised the activities of the local Ukrainian police.

Following the retreat of the Red Army, a period of anarchy ensued, during which a mob of local Ukrainians started a pogrom, tormenting and robbing Jews and killing two who attempted to resist. The looting continued until the entry of German forces. A small delegation of Jews led by Yakov Eisenberg asked the priest, Sokhazhanit, to intervene. He promised to protect Jewish lives but not their property.²

The summer and fall of 1941 saw the implementation of a series of anti-Jewish measures in the town. First, the German authorities registered the Jews. They ordered them to wear distinctive markings: initially, armbands bearing the Star of David and, later, a yellow patch on their chest and back. Jews also had to mark their homes with a blue Star of David. They were prohibited from going beyond the limits of the town. They were not permitted to buy food from non-Jews, and as a result, they lived in a state of near starvation. The Ukrainian police subjected Jews to systematic requisitions, lootings, and beatings.

A Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established in the village, with Eisenberg as its head.³ The Judenrat served as the channel of communications between the German occupation authorities and the Jewish population, transmitting their regulations and demands. A Jewish police force for maintaining security, consisting of a few Jews, was set up under the authority of the Jewish Council.

The German authorities levied a “fine” of 4 grams (0.14 ounce) of gold for every Jew, which the Judenrat fulfilled with the aid of community members who had the means to assist. All livestock belonging to Jews was confiscated. The Jews were required to report each morning for forced labor, such as street cleaning, road repair, and work at the sawmill. Workers received payment in the form of a daily ration of 200 grams (7 ounces) of bread. Some Jews planted vegetable gardens as a source of additional food. In December 1941, Jews were ordered to turn in their fur garments and pay another fine in the form of fabric for clothing, jewelry, winter coats, and 5 grams (0.18 ounce) of gold and 100 rubles per head. Lacking the means to meet this demand, the Judenrat received some aid from the local Polish priest, Dominik Wałcinowicz, who also asked his parishioners to help the Jews. The head of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, Andrei Mokha, was a friend of Eisenberg and placed some restraints on the behavior of the men under his command.⁴

In late April 1942, right after Passover, the German authorities established an “open ghetto” in Włodzimierzec. Jews from the surrounding smaller communities were also taken from their homes and forced into the ghetto. An estimated 3,000 Jews were concentrated in the ghetto area.⁵ The ghetto in Włodzimierzec existed for scarcely more than four months. As their impending fate became increasingly clear from news of massacres in the other communities of the region, the Jews of the town prayed and wept behind closed doors, reciting from Torah scrolls that had been kept hidden. In mid-August, a local Ukrainian brought word that pits were being dug on the road to Żołkinie. Eisenberg asked the German police for an explanation but was assured that this report was a false rumor. As the workweek began on Sunday, August 23, the number of Ukrainian police guarding the forced labor groups increased. They told the Jews of a plan to remove all those who were unfit for productive labor. Confronted with this threat, the Judenrat considered setting the ghetto on fire in the event of an Aktion, hoping to create enough confusion for people to flee. But after careful consideration, this idea was rejected.⁶

On August 27, 1942, all the Jews were ordered to gather on the market square, which was cordoned off by the police. The Jews were held there for a day and a night. At about 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. on August 28, some Jews tried to escape following an accidental shot, but the police opened fire, killing many Jews on the town’s streets as they fled in all directions. Local policemen also finished off any Jews they found in hiding, including the nine-month-old baby of a Jewish woman named Burko, which she had entrusted to the Christian resident Anna Yerofeyevna Guzey as she fled.⁷

The Germans divided the remaining Jews into separate groups: one for the Judenrat and their families, one for specialist workers, and a third for “worthless Jews.” Suddenly a Ukrainian policeman called out, “Whoever has hidden gold, silver, or other valuables can come with us and remove them from the hiding places. Those who do this will be allowed to remain alive.” Some Jews also tried to move discreetly from the group of “worthless Jews” to that of specialist workers.⁸

However, the hopes that some might be preserved were soon dashed. Later that day the remaining Jews, starting with the Judenrat members and their families, were escorted by the German and Ukrainian police in the direction of the village of Żołkinie. The Ukrainian police chief had offered his friend Eisenberg a place to hide, but Eisenberg declined, saying that “the fate of my people shall be my fate as well.”⁹ The Jews were led to the Smoliarna Forest 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) outside the town, where three mass graves had been prepared. Here the men and women were separated and made to undress; then a German shot them in the trench in groups of 5 with a machine gun. Local peasants also collected the bodies of those killed in the town, taking them to be buried in [End Page 1495] the same mass graves. In total, some 2,000 Jews were murdered during the “ghetto liquidation.”¹⁰

Apparently the shooting was directed by a squad of Security Police and SD from the office in Równe and was carried out with the assistance of the German Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian police. Only a few dozen Jews were able to evade the Aktion and the relentless searches that followed. Amazingly Mordechai Weissman survived by simply running as fast as he could just moments before he was due to be shot.¹¹

Ukrainian Baptists and Polish peasants aided some of the escapees. Others joined various partisan units: Soviet, Soviet-Polish, and Jewish. Soviet partisan forces liberated the town on January 12, 1944. One survivor who returned, Eliahu Kutz, assisted the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) in identifying collaborators and murderers. A Soviet court in Rovno tried those who were caught, sentencing them to hard labor in Siberia.¹²