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

Pre-1941: Olevsk, town and raion center, Zhitomir oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1943: Olewsk, Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Olevs’k, raion center, Zhytomyr oblast’, Ukraine

Olevsk is located 130 kilometers (81 miles) north-northwest of Zhitomir. According to the 1939 census, 2,858 Jews lived in Olevsk, comprising 42.2 percent of the total population. An additional 866 Jews resided in the villages of the Olevsk raion.

The bulk of the Jewish population evacuated east with the Red Army as the Wehrmacht advanced into central Ukraine in early July 1941, leaving only about 20 percent of the pre-war Jewish population behind.

By late July, German troops still had not appeared in the town. One resident recalled hearing rumors that the Germans were not coming to Olevsk at all.¹ From July to October 1941, a German military administration was nominally responsible for the region around Olevsk; in practice, Ukrainian forces of the “Polis’ka Sich,” answerable to the pragmatic nationalist leader Taras Bul’ba-Borovets’, seized control of the town in late July. By August, Bul’ba-Borovets’ had appointed Petro Smorods’kyi as commander of the Sich garrison in Olevsk; he had under his command between 300 and 600 militiamen there.²

Bul’ba-Borovets’ and the Sich soon set up their own local government in Olevsk. Boris Simonovich, a local resident and Sich member, was appointed as leader of the raion council.³ He began appointing other local officials in late July.⁴ Most important, the Sich took over all police responsibilities in Olevsk.

From August through October, the Jewish population lived in a perpetual “state of anarchy” under Sich rule, as they were [End Page 1553] frequently subjected to “robbery, brutality, and killings.” In addition to organizing pogroms, the Polis’ka Sich assigned Jews to various forced labor tasks, mainly aimed at torturing and humiliating them. Whether they were forced to build a bridge over the Ubort’ River or clean lavatories in town, these jobs were accompanied by “whippings, cursing, and mockery at every step.”⁵

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Photograph of the Chief of Police in Sarny, Taras Bul’ba-Borovets’, and other members of the Ukrainian paramilitary unit, Polis’ka Sich, published in the occupation newspaper, Volyn’.

COURTESY OF JARED MCBRIDE

The Sich regularly terrorized the Jews in their own homes. They broke into Jewish apartments on Komsomol’skaia and Oktiabr’skaia Streets to steal food and clothes. Sometimes these incursions turned deadly. One afternoon Zeriuk and three other members of the Polis’ka Sich broke into the apartment of Munia Shapiro, looking for goods. In Shapiro’s room, Zeriuk beat Shapiro with his rifle butt and then shot him three times, as well as another Jew who was there. The bodies of the two young men lay for almost a week in the apartment, where they began to rot.⁶

In addition to physical abuse, economic burdens were also imposed on the Jews. After a census, the head of the raion council, Simonovich, levied a collective tax of 100,000 rubles on the Jewish population.⁷ Living conditions under the “Olevsk Republic” are characterized by the Jewish survivor Iakov Keselev Shklover: “the livestock were treated better than us.” The Sich initiated anti-Jewish measures and killed people with total impunity in Olevsk, even before there was any discernible German presence in the town.⁸

In early November 1941, personnel of the German civil administration arrived in Olevsk and established their authority.⁹ Olevsk became the administrative center of Gebiet Olewsk, which also included the Rayons of Slowetschno and Luginy, as well as Rayon Olewsk. Gebiet Olewsk now formed part of Generalkommissariat Shitomir, within Reichskommissariat Ukraine.¹⁰ In Olevsk, the Gebietskommissar was a man named Fischer, who was accompanied by an entourage of assistants.¹¹

On the establishment of the German civil administration, the assistant Gebietskommissar in Olevsk, Neukirchner, issued an order for the Jews to be ghettoized. The Polis’ka Sich and the local Ukrainian police forced the entire Jewish population to move onto three main streets—Komsomol’skaia, Oktiabr’skaia, and Stalina—while the Russian and Ukrainian populations were removed from these streets to create a purely Jewish ghetto. The Jewish population was ordered to wear the Star of David at all times, and a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established, chaired by Elik Kats, the son of a local fireman.¹² The Jews of Olevsk had to endure terrible overcrowding in the ghetto, as many families were forced to share a single apartment. The Jewish population was still not free of terror from members of the Sich, who routinely vandalized and broke into apartments.¹³

In mid-November 1941, a new group of Germans, possibly an SS detachment from Einsatzkommando 5, arrived in Olevsk and made preparations for the liquidation of the ghetto. According to internal Sich documentation, on November 18, SS-Captain Hitschke requisitioned members of the Sich for the forthcoming Aktion, and about 50 Sich soldiers and two Sich commanders agreed to participate.¹⁴ In Varvarovka, a village located about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Olevsk, local Ukrainians were ordered to dig two large pits near the Ubort’ River.¹⁵

At nightfall on November 19, German forces, members of the Polis’ka Sich, and local Ukrainian police cordoned off the Jewish ghetto. The Jews were ordered to gather with their belongings at a collection point for registration. The Germanled forces then scoured the ghetto area, beating and dragging out anyone found hiding. The old and sick were simply shot on the spot. Around 15 elderly people were killed on the streets.¹⁶ A few Jews, including Ovsei Srulevich Reiblat and Tevel’ Gershkov Trosman, miraculously managed to evade the roundup. The bulk of the Jews from the ghetto were herded into sheds and stables near the train tracks, where they spent the night huddled together like animals, awaiting their slaughter.

On the morning of November 20, 1941, the Jews were driven to the village of Varvarovka in trucks. Upon arrival, all the Jews had to remove their clothes, which were subsequently taken back to Olevsk in the trucks. The waiting Jews were then taken in groups of 15 to 20 people under heavy guard to the two pits located about 400 meters (1,312 feet) behind the village. The shooters, who were mostly Sich members and local policemen, lined up about 5 meters (16 feet) behind their respective victims and took aim.¹⁷ When they fired, the victims’ bodies fell into the pits. The sound of gunfire and screams could be heard in Varvarovka throughout the day. In total, they shot 535 Jews on that day.¹⁸

Local inhabitants looted Jewish property from the empty ghetto. Over the ensuing weeks, members of the Polis’ka Sich and the local police also hunted for the few Jews who had managed to escape, conducting thorough sweeps of the forests. Local inhabitants were threatened with severe penalties for hiding or assisting Jews. These searches uncovered at least 15 more Jews, who were then shot near the same pits at the Ubort’ River.¹⁹

Only a handful of Jews from the ghetto managed to survive until the end of World War II.