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

Pre-1941: Il’intsy, town and raion center, Vinnitsa oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Illinzi, Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Illintsi, raion center, Vinnytsia oblast’, Ukraine

Il’intsy is located 53 kilometers (33 miles) east-southeast of Vinnitsa. According to the 1939 census, there were 2,217 Jews living in the town. At the time of the German invasion, some Jews joined the Red Army, evacuated with the Soviet authorities, or managed to flee before the Germans arrived. However, a number of refugees from western Ukraine, who were fleeing before the German advance, became trapped in Il’intsy when the Germans arrived. It is possible that as many as 2,000 Jews were in the town at the start of the German occupation. [End Page 1530]

Units of the German 6th Army occupied the town on July 23, 1941. The initial German military administration appointed a Jewish Council ( Judenrat) and exacted a tribute in gold and silver from the community. In late August the Jews were concentrated into a ghetto.

In the fall of 1941, at least one Aktion was conducted against local Jews accused of supporting the Communists. More than 40 Jewish men were arrested, beaten, and then shot in the nearby Il’intsy Forest by German security forces, assisted by the local Ukrainian police.¹

The Gebietskommissar in Il’intsy was Kreisleiter Heinrich Scholdra, who usually wore a monocle. The mayor was a local ethnic German physician, Dr. Heine. The transition from a military to a civil administration in the Vinnitsa region occurred on October 20, 1941. The establishment of Gendarmerie posts, including the post in Il’intsy, followed during the winter of 1941–1942. The Gendarmerie, commanded by Meister Andreas Wagner, then took over responsibility for the Ukrainian local police (militia), which was renamed the Schutzmannschaft.

A second Aktion was conducted in late April or mid-May of 1942. The ghetto was surrounded by German and Ukrainian police units, including some brought in from outside. Then, early in the morning, those Jews who were hiding within the ghetto in previously prepared bunkers heard shots in the distance. According to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK) report, during this Aktion approximately 1,000 Jews were shot into graves some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) outside the town.² In late May 1942, the Germans and local police herded the survivors into the synagogue and held them there for a few days before shooting most of them. This Aktion was coordinated by officials from the Security Police post in Vinnitsa, assisted by the Gendarmerie and the local police. Estimates of the number of Jews murdered on this occasion vary between 434 and 800. Among those shot in Il’intsy at this time were also Jews brought in from the nearby rural ghetto in Zhornishche. According to the report of the Generalkommissar in Shitomir dated June 3, 1942, during the month of May, 434 Jews were “resettled” (murdered) in Gebiet Illinzi.³ In mid-July 1942, the Gebietskommissar in Il’intsy requested that former Jewish property be made available for use by the police.⁴

In December 1942, the remaining Jews were forced to clear snow from a main road. Once again the Jews were registered. Some craftsmen were exempted from this task, as they were required to train Ukrainian youths to become their replacements. On December 23, 1942, German police forces and their Ukrainian collaborators again surrounded the ghetto. On this occasion the Germans and the Ukrainian police completely tore down the ghetto, setting fire to a factory building where Jews were hiding and shooting them as they tried to escape. Only 17 specialist craftsmen and a seamstress were temporarily spared from this Aktion.⁵

Among those who survived was Eva Dub, who hid with her mother and sisters during the May 25 Aktion, but then, unfortunately, they returned to the ghetto prematurely, believing the operation was completed. They then made their house appear derelict to deceive the policemen searching the ghetto and subsequently lived there until December. In December Eva escaped and survived with the help of local Ukrainians before fleeing to the forests.⁶ A number of Jews originally from Il’intsy formed the nucleus of a Jewish partisan company, the 2nd Stalin Brigade; 39 of its 124 members were Jews from the town.