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

Pre-1941: Vinnitsa, city, raion, and oblast’ center, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Winniza, Rayon and Gebiet center, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Vinnytsia, capital, Vinnytsia oblast’, Ukraine

Vinnitsa is located 198 kilometers (123 miles) southwest of Kiev. In 1939, there were 33,150 Jews living in the city (35.6 percent of the total population).

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a part of the Jewish population was able to evacuate to the east. Eligible men were conscripted into or enlisted voluntarily for the Red Army. At the start of the German occupation, about 18,000 Jews remained in the city.

German armed forces occupied the city on July 19, 1941. In July and August 1941, a German military administration ran Vinnitsa. On July 22, 1941, the Feldkommandant appointed a local administration and an auxiliary police unit recruited from among local inhabitants. In October 1941, authority passed to a German civil administration. Vinnitsa had its own city administration (Winniza-Stadt) within Generalkommissariat Shitomir. Fritz Margenfeld was named the city commissioner (Stadtkommissar).¹ A variety of police units, including Einsatzkommando 6 and parts of Einsatzkommando 5, along with local auxiliaries, provided the forces to back up German edicts.

In the summer of 1941, the German occupying forces implemented a series of anti-Jewish measures in Vinnitsa. A Jewish Council (Judenrat) was created. Jews were required to wear distinctive armbands bearing the image of the Star of David. They were forced into different forms of heavy labor for the German military forces and occupation administration. The Jews were not allowed to leave their place of residence without permission, had to surrender all items of value, and were prohibited from buying products at the market. The local Ukrainian residents of Vinnitsa were not permitted to have any contact with the Jewish population.

The main functions of the Judenrat were to assign Jews to different labor tasks, to maintain order within the community, and to look after the health and welfare of the Jewish population. But in the first days of its existence as an organization, the Security Police and SD liquidated the first Judenrat, and another one was established in its place. The military commandant’s office also collected a massive fine or “tribute” from the Jews of the city.²

The German police conducted a series of mass executions in the summer and fall of 1941, first of Jewish Intelligentsia and then of ordinary Jewish citizens. In a large Aktion on September 19, the 45th Reserve Police Battalion shot more than 10,000 Jews. Then on April 15, 1942, about 4,800 Jews were shot in the Pianichanskii Forest. After this Aktion, approximately 1,000 Jews, all artisans, remained alive.

From among the Jewish artisans, the mechanics and technicians were immediately sent to Zhitomir,³ and those left [End Page 1576] behind were assigned to different groups for specialized labor tasks. About 150 Jews were resettled into a labor camp run by the Organisation Todt (OT), which was located in a former military barracks at the end of Krasnoarmeiskaia Street.⁴ Some 26 people who worked as cabinetmakers, as coopers, and as other specialists formed a work team at the carpentry factory. They lived in makeshift barracks, consisting of a former stable on the grounds of the factory.⁵

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Waffen-SS and Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst) members look on as an Einsatzgruppe member prepares to shoot a Ukrainian Jew kneeling on the edge of a corpse-filled ditch near Vinnitsa, n.d.

USHMM WS #64407, LC

The majority of the Jewish artisans lived in the “ghetto,” which was located in a cordoned-off area on the former Kommunisticheskaia Street.⁶ On May 15, 1942, 801 Jewish specialist workers were recorded in Vinnitsa.⁷ Among the crafts represented, there were tailors, dyers, and leather workers. There was also overcrowding in the ghetto, with at least 12 people per room. According to one witness, conditions were slightly better in the ghetto than in the other labor camps in Vinnitsa, as the beatings were less frequent and there was more food in the ghetto.⁸ The majority of the artisans were shot during the course of 1942 and 1943. For example, in March 1943 a number of elderly people were taken from the ghetto and shot; and the last remaining Jewish leather workers were “removed” in September 1943.⁹ A small group of Jews were able to escape and survived with the help of local Ukrainian residents in Vinnitsa.

At least 17 Jews in the city were members of the underground organization, including six Communists, three members of the Komsomol youth organization, and eight unaffiliated (nonparty). At least nine of these Jewish resistance fighters were killed in combat against the German occupying forces.¹⁰ A small number of Jews were able to flee into the forests and join the partisan resistance.