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

Pre-1939: Wołczyn (Yiddish: Voltchin), town, województwo poleskie, Poland; 1941–1944: Woltschin, Rayon Motykali, Gebiet Brest-Litowsk (Land), Generalkommissariat Wolhynien und Podolien; post-1991: Vouchyn, Beras’tse voblasts’, Republic of Belarus

Wołczyn is located 34 kilometers (21 miles) northwest of Brześć. Former Wołczyners estimate that on the eve of World War II about 500 Jews lived there (about 70 families). A German census from early 1942 indicates that 784 Jews were still alive in Rayon Motykali. Thus there were probably about 350 Jews from Czerniawczyce and other villages, in addition to those from Wołczyn, as there was no significant Jewish population in Motykali, and the same source states that most Jews had already been ghettoized.¹

On the morning of June 22, 1941, the Germans conducted a heavy bombardment of the area around Wołczyn, destroying some Jewish homes and businesses. Soon after, they occupied the town. A few days later, Krause, a German about 50 years old, arrived with a few civilians who spoke Russian and German and began to organize a local administration. He appointed a Pole, Korszniewski, as mayor, and an ex-prisoner, Rose, also a Catholic, as head of the police. Three or four men from neighboring villages, including opponents of the Soviet government and former criminals, formed the police force.²

The area around Wołczyn was initially part of Distrikt Bialystok (attached to East Prussia), but on January 1, 1942, it was transferred to Gebiet Brest-Litowsk (Land), in Reichskommissariat Ukraine, forming the new Rayon of Motykali. The Gebietskommissar in Brześć (city) was Curt Rolle; he was replaced in October 1942 by Franz Burat, who retained the responsibility he had exercised previously for the surrounding Rayons. In October 1942 (just after the ghetto liquidation), the strength of the local police (Schutzmannschaft) in Rayon Motykali was 62, but most were probably based at the two police stations in Lyszczyce and Czerniawczyce.³

The Germans soon created a Jewish Council ( Judenrat), summoning a few prominent Jews and forcing them to accept positions. They included Shlomko Zufrik, Avrum Kupershmidt, and Berenson from the mill of Kotera. The Judenrat had to collect valuables and hand over people for forced labor.

From early in the occupation, Jews were assigned to backbreaking work duties, sent to labor camps, tortured, and shot according to the Germans’ moods. Some residents left for other towns such as Wysokie, which was larger and offered more places to hide.

After a few months of the occupation, a ghetto was created. The Jews could only take essential items with them to their new quarters, which were terribly crowded. The sick and children lived in the synagogue; some people lived in storehouses, barns, and even cowsheds. In Mordeku’s grain barn, they put those who arrived from the town of Czerniawczyce. Across from the barn, the home of Isar Midler was taken over by officials: the chief of police, the head of the village, and the Judenrat met there.⁴

Former Wołczyn resident Shmuel Englender, who escaped his family’s fate by joining the Red Army, has reconstructed the ghetto boundaries. Extending its northern and eastern borders to the Pulva River (a tributary of the Bug), the ghetto was bordered on the south by the Christian homes of Old Wołczyn and on the west by the main road, marked by a wooden fence. Englender also identified four entrances to the ghetto: only one of these was intended for ghetto inmates departing on work details, the remainder being reserved for the guards and members of the Judenrat. One exit, near the post [End Page 1499] office, was used for removing the bodies of Jews who died from hunger and disease. In the Jewish cemetery, outside the ghetto, a pit would be dug, its size determined by the number of bodies brought over that night. No markers were left on these graves.

Around the Wołczyn ghetto, the occupiers erected a fence about 2 meters (6.6 feet) high and patrolled by guards. Near the church, the fence was wooden; by the river, it was wire. According to the villager Vera Vladimirovna Shpagina: “After they put up the fence, it was impossible to get out of the ghetto without permission.”⁵

Policemen were the first, and then the rest of the villagers confiscated goods from the Jewish homes. Some Jews hid things in their yards and had villagers dig out their treasures, which the Jews traded for a little food. Life in the ghetto was very harsh. There was great hunger. Jews were given only 150 to 200 grams (5.3 to 7 ounces) of bread per day. Half of it was sawdust. From time to time, there was some milk for the children. Many died from hunger and disease.⁶

Eyewitness testimony from villagers record that two or three days before the massacre, strangers arrived in Wołczyn. The guards around the ghetto were reinforced, especially near the river, where the fence was made only of wire.

On the morning of September 22, 1942, local people assisted in completing a pit just outside of town. Meanwhile in the ghetto, Krause, Rose, Korszniewski, and the Judenrat walked from one Jewish house to another and ordered everyone to congregate at the synagogue. There, the German Krause ordered that within an hour everyone should collect their belongings, dress in their best clothing, and report to be moved to a larger ghetto in nearby Wysokie. Before the end of the hour, the Judenrat and the police checked the houses again to make sure no one was there.

The sick and disabled were put on carts, as were the Jews’ belongings. The rest of the Jews were ordered to walk to the edge of the village in the direction of Wysokie. They stopped at a former sand quarry, 200 meters (656 feet) from the end of Wołczyn. There they were immediately surrounded by policemen and Germans. After a while, they were told to turn right towards a “pit,” about 60 meters wide by 30 meters long (197 by 98 feet). The Germans and their Belorussian and Polish helpers ordered the Jews to undress. Poltrok said, “All at once, everybody began to scream and cry. Only then did they probably understand what was going to happen.”⁷

Available sources indicate that the massacre was conducted by about nine Germans and about 20 local policemen from Wołczyn and other nearby stations. The Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) reported that 497 people were shot on that day. It is estimated that 395 were from Wołczyn, and 102 were from Czerniawczyce.⁸ The report gives some chilling details:

The killings, by shooting, were conducted in groups of three to five people. They were led to the edge of the pit, were shot, and thrown into the pit. People were shouting, crying, and begging for mercy—nothing helped. The fascists ignored all and continued with the shootings. Those who refused to go to the pit were shot on the spot, and, sometimes when they were still alive, dragged into the pit. Some of the babies were lifted from the ground into the air, shot, and thrown into the pit.⁹

According to a German report, a few Jewish craftsmen were kept alive in Wołczyn at the time of the massacre and were presumably murdered a few weeks later.¹⁰ Those sent previously to work on road construction projects either shared the fate of the Brześć Jews, most of whom were transported by train to Bronna Góra in mid-October 1942 and were murdered there, or were killed around Brześć as the remaining labor camps were liquidated. One local inhabitant recalled that some 500 Jews were killed in Motykali shortly after the Wołczyn massacre; these were reportedly escapees from the Brześć ghetto, who were recaptured by the Germans and local helpers.¹¹

According to eyewitness Pavel Ivanovich Vivituk, after the massacre, some of the Jews’ clothes were brought to a storage area behind the German headquarters; the best items were divided among the Germans and their helpers. After a day or two, people came in the evening to the Jewish homes and searched for hidden valuables. Many homes were later occupied by Germans.

The Soviets suspected anyone who had cooperated with the Germans. Many people were arrested, and the majority of them were sent to Brześć. Some were convicted and returned after a few years in prison. For example, the Soviet government arrested the head of the village, Korszniewski, who was tried not for the massacre but for cooperating with the Germans. Witnesses recall that his sentence was surprisingly light: only about six months in prison.

No Jews are known to have survived the massacre in Wołczyn. After the war, none of the Jews returned to live in the town. In Israel today, there are about 25 people with ties to Wołczyn, and a few others are living scattered throughout the United States.