MIROPOL’
Pre-1941: Miropol’, town, Dzerzhinsk raion, Zhitomir oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1943: Miropol, Rayon Romanow (Dzherzhinsk), Gebiet Tschudnow, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Myropil’, Romaniv raion, Zhytomyr oblast’, Ukraine
Miropol’ is located 71 kilometers (44 miles) west-southwest of Zhitomir. According to the census of December 16, 1926, there were 1,143 Jews living in Miropol’. In mid-1941, approximately 600 Jews lived in the town.
German forces occupied Miropol’ on July 6, 1941 two weeks after the German invasion of the USSR on June 22. A number of Jews were able to evacuate to the east during this intervening period. Men of eligible age were called up or enlisted voluntarily in the Red Army. It is estimated that roughly 70 percent of the pre-war Jewish population remained in the settlement at the start of the occupation.
From July to October 1941, a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) administered Miropol’. The German military administration created a local authority and recruited an auxiliary Ukrainian police force from among local residents. The local police played an active part in the repressive measures taken against the Jews.
At the end of October 1941, power was transferred to a German civil administration. Miropol’ became a Rayon center in Gebiet Tschudnow, and Oberstammführer Dr. Blümel became the Gebietskommissar.1
Shortly after the occupation of the settlement, by order of the Ortskommandantur, the local authority organized the registration and marking of the Jews, who were required to wear distinguishing armbands. Jews were also forced to perform heavy labor tasks (such as repairing roads) under the guard of the Ukrainian police, solely because of their ethnicity.
At the end of July 1941, the Ortskommandantur announced the establishment of a ghetto (Jewish residential district) in the center of the settlement.2 Jews were prohibited from going beyond the limits of the ghetto and from buying products or even conversing with Ukrainians. As a result, famine quickly ensued.
At the end of July 1941, the first Aktion was carried out in Miropol’. Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C shot 24 Jews for refusing to work.3 At the end of September or the beginning of October 1941, a further Aktion took place in the settlement. The Ukrainian police shot 157 Jews in the park: 29 men, 66 women, and 62 children. Two days later, the Ukrainian police arrested and shot a Jewish family of four.4
During the first half of October 1941, another Aktion was carried out in Miropol’: 94 people—14 men, 31 women, and 49 children—were shot in the park.5 After this Aktion, only the Jewish craftsmen and their families remained in the settlement. These 100 people were shot by the Ukrainian police on February 16, 1942.6
Also in December 1941, the Ukrainian police brought into Miropol’ nine Jews (eight women and one child) who had been hiding in the village of Kolodiazhnoe. They were then shot in the public park.7 In 1941 and 1942, the Germans and their collaborators murdered some 400 Jews in Miropol’ in total.8
On January 5, 1987, a criminal court in the Zhitomir oblast’ sentenced to death two of the former Miropol’ policemen, Les’ko and Gnatiuk. In addition, one other policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
SOURCES
Some information regarding the Miropol’ ghetto has been published in Garri Fel’dman, ed., Zabveniiu ne podlezhit: Sbornik materialov o Kholokoste, perezhitom moimi zemliakami (Shitomir, 2000).
Documents dealing with the persecution and elimination of the Jews in Miropol’ can be found in the following archives: BA-BL; DAZO; GARF (7021-60-291); PAAKru.
NOTES
1. BA-BL, BDC, SSHO 2432, Organisationsplan der besetzten Ostgebiete nach dem Stand vom 10. März 1942, hg. vom Chef der Ordnungspolizei, Berlin, March 13, 1942.
2. Testimony of Liudmila Blekhman, in Fel’dman, Zabveniiu ne podlezhit, p. 39.
3. BA-BL, R 58/215, Ereignismeldung UdSSR no. 47, August 9, 1941; see also Peter Klein, ed., Die Einsatzgruppen in der besetzten Sowjetunion 1941/42 (Berlin: Hentrich, 1997), p. 139.
4. Information obtained by the author from the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the Zhitomir oblast’, December 4, 1991, and February 4, 1992 (PAAKru).
5. Ibid. The executions probably took place on October 13, 1941; see GARF, 7021-60-291, p. 5.
6. PAAKru, letter from the SBU in Zhitomir oblast’, February 4, 1992. See also GARF, 7021-60-291, p. 5.
7. PAAKru, letter from the SBU in Zhitomir oblast’, February 4, 1992.
8. According to the materials of the Dzerzhinsk raion commission for the investigation of crimes committed by the occupants and their collaborators in the Dzerzhinsk raion, 960 Jews were killed in Miropol’. GARF, 7021-60-291, p. 5. As this figure is not supported by the materials in the files, it is probably too high.
