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

Pre-1941: Korostyshev, town and raion center, Zhitomir oblast’, Ukraine; 1941–1943: Korostyschew, Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Korostyshiv, raion center, Zhytomyr oblast’, Ukraine

Korostyshev is located 45 kilometers (28 miles) east-northeast of Zhitomir. According to the 1939 census, there were 2,170 Jews living in Korostyshev (19.4 percent of the population). Another 83 Jews lived in the villages of the Korostyshev raion.

The town was occupied by German armed forces on July 12, 1941. In the interim between the German invasion on June 22 and the occupation of the town, some Jews were able to evacuate to the east, and men of an eligible age were called up to the Red Army or enlisted voluntarily. About two thirds of the pre-war Jewish population remained in the town at the start of the occupation. [End Page 1538]

From July to October 1941, a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) ran the town. The Ortskommandantur established a town administration and an auxiliary Ukrainian police unit recruited from local residents. The Ukrainian police played an active role in the measures taken against the Jewish population.

At the end of October 1941, authority passed to a German civilian administration. Korostyshev became the administrative center of Gebiet Korostyschew, and Gauhauptstellenleiter Dankbar was appointed as Gebietskommissar. In turn, Gebiet Korostyschew became part of Generalkommissariat Shitomir, within Reichskommissariat Ukraine.¹

Shortly after the occupation of Korostyshev, a detachment of Sonderkommando 4a commanded by Paul Blobel (subordinated to Einsatzgruppe C) arrived in the town and shot 40 Jews “for sabotage, espionage, and larceny.”²

After these first shootings, the military commandant ordered one street to be cordoned off and an open ghetto ( Jewish residential area) established for the Jews.³ The Jewish population was not allowed to leave the ghetto without permission or to buy goods from local Ukrainians. The Ukrainians, in turn, were prohibited from having any contact with the Jews. The Jews were required to wear an armband bearing the Star of David on their left arms. Jewish men were forced to perform various kinds of heavy labor and were subjected to harsh beatings by the Ukrainian policemen.

It is likely that in August 1941 some of the Jewish men who were performing forced labor were shot. In September 1941, Sonderkommando 4a liquidated the ghetto and shot all the Jews.⁴ The mass shooting was carried out in a meadow to the south of the town (now marked by a monument). Many Jews from outlying villages—for example, 20 people from the village of Studenitsa—were shot along with the Jews from Korostyshev.

Another report, prepared by Feldkommandantur 197, dated September 20, 1941, stated that “it was also discovered that Jews in Korostyshev and Zhitomir maintained relations with the partisans. In retaliation, 60 Jews were shot in Korostyshev.”⁵

According to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), there was another mass shooting in Korostyshev, probably in May 1942, reflecting the attempt to cleanse the Generalkommissariat Shitomir of all remaining Jews at this time. The Security Police from Zhitomir, assisted by the Gendarmerie, shot up to 1,000 Jews, including about 100 children; many of these people were brought to Korostyshev from surrounding locations.⁶