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

Click for larger view
View full resolution

Two Jewish men are forced by German troops with the 6th Army to hang three other Jews in a village outside of Khar’kov. All five of the Jewish men were eventually hanged as suspected members of the resistance, 1942.

USHMM WS #67069, COURTESY OF YIVO

Pre-1941: eastern part of the Ukrainian SSR and Crimean ASSR, RSFSR; 1941 1943: (Crimea occupied 1941–1944), initially Rear Area, Army Group South (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd), then 1942–1943: Rear Area, Army Group B (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet B); 1943: eastern part of the Ukrainian SSR and Crimean ASSR (from 1945, Crimean oblast’, RSFSR, from 1954, Ukrainian SSR); post-1991: eastern part of Ukraine and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine

Between the fall of 1941 and the summer of 1942, the Germans established around 19 ghettos in the military-occupied territory of eastern Ukraine and Crimea; as many as 19,000 Jews may have been confined within these ghettos. Most of these ghettos existed for only a few weeks, prior to the rapid extermination of the Jewish population. With reference to the Soviet administrative divisions as of 1939, the ghettos were distributed as follows: six in the Chernigov oblast’; two in the Sumy oblast’; four in the Stalino oblast’; and three (possibly four) in the Khar’kov oblast’. In addition, there were four ghettos (or camps mainly for Jews) in German-occupied Crimea.

German forces penetrated into eastern Ukraine following the Battle of Kiev in August and September 1941, reaching, for example, the town of Priluki, Chernigov oblast’, on September 18. German forces captured Belopol’e in the Sumy oblast’ and Artemovsk in the Stalino oblast’ on October 7 and 14, respectively. Units of the German 6th Army occupied Khar’kov on October 24, 1941. Kramatorsk and Stalino were also occupied in late October. The greater part of the Crimean peninsula was captured by units of the German 11th Army in the second half of October 1941.

Due to the passage of several months after the start of the invasion before these regions were occupied, a considerable portion of the Jewish population was evacuated or able to flee. German registration statistics for the number of Jews encountered have survived for several locations. For example, in Khar’kov, just over 10,000 Jews were registered from a 1939 Jewish population of 130,250. Even allowing for considerable underregistration, probably less than 10 percent of the Jewish population remained. In Dzhankoi, Crimea, on their arrival, the Germans discovered only 44 Jews out of a pre-war population of 1,397 (less than 4 percent). In some smaller locations, such as Voikovshtadt and Alushta in Crimea, or Shchors (Chernigov oblast’), about one third of the Jews came under German occupation. Regarding Yalta, on the southern tip of the Crimean peninsula, Soviet documentation indicates that at least 1,120 Jews were evacuated from the city in an organized fashion. However, other Jews fleeing before the German advance became trapped there, such that the number of Jews killed in Yalta probably exceeded 50 percent of the city’s pre-war Jewish population of 2,109.¹

The two largest ghettos established by the Germans in eastern Ukraine and Crimea were those in Khar’kov, holding about 10,000 Jews, and in Stalino, which held up to 3,000 Jews. Three other ghettos had populations in excess of 1,000: those in Priluki, Artemovsk, and Yalta. Of the remaining ghettos, only those in Dzhankoi, Enakievo, and Shchors had populations of around 500 Jews—all the others containing less than 150. The two ghettos in the Sumy oblast’ and the two (or three) smaller ghettos in the Khar’kov oblast’ all probably held less than 40 Jews each.

In many large cities of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, however, as well as in many towns in these regions, no ghettos were established. Instead, the remaining Jews were killed in mass-shooting Aktions or by other means without formal ghettoization. In Mariupol’, for example, after introducing the wearing of the Star of David and establishing a Jewish Council (Judenrat) to register the Jews in mid-October 1941, the German authorities initiated the murder of 8,000 Jews on October 18. The Jews were assembled briefly in a barracks on the edge of town for a few days before being taken in groups to be shot and buried in an antitank ditch on the Maxim-Gorki Kolkhoz, a few kilometers outside the city. The mass shootings conducted here by Sonderkommando 10a of Einsatzgruppe D went on for several days, with most Jews being murdered on October 20–21.²

The Wehrmacht was responsible for imposing a series of anti-Jewish measures following its arrival in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. In addition to the registration of the Jews and the introduction of distinctive markers, Jews were also required to perform forced labor. In Yalta, Sonderkommando 11a was mainly responsible for introducing the anti-Jewish measures, including the formation of a Jewish Council and the introduction of a six-pointed star, to be worn by the Jews on their chests and backs. All money and valuables had to be surrendered to the Germans via the Jewish Council.³

The process of ghettoization is documented for only a few of the ghetto locations. In Khar’kov and Stalino the local Ukrainian administration played an active role in its implementation. According to the testimony of the deputy mayor, Eichmann, on orders from Einsatzkommando 6, the mayors of the city districts and the police chiefs in Stalino organized the transfer of the Jews into the ghetto.⁴ In Khar’kov, probably prompted by Sonderkommando 4a under the command of Paul Blobel, the city administration issued a resolution on November 22 excluding Jews from working in public institutions and ordering that they be resettled into one district. The city administration also registered the Jews in early December, prior to their resettlement on December 16. The Wehrmacht commandant in the city signed the placards, which ordered the Jews to move into the ghetto or be shot.⁵ [End Page 1756]

A variety of different structures were used as ghetto sites. In Khar’kov, for example, the ghetto was established in the barracks of a factory district on the outskirts of town. In Yenakievo, four large barracks were also used for the ghetto. In Stalino, the ghetto was located in a settlement named “Belyi Kar’er” (White Pit) at a former quarry on the outskirts of the city. The cottages in this settlement were virtually destroyed before the Jews moved in. In Artemovsk, the Jews were confined within the cellars of the town’s administrative headquarters. In Priluki, two school buildings were used for the ghetto, which was surrounded by barbed wire.

Five open ghettos are known to have been established in Borzna, Gorodnia, Korop, Semenovka, and Shchors, all in the Chernigov oblast’. In Gorodnia, the ghetto was established several weeks after the town was first combed by a detachment of Sonderkommando 7b in late September 1941, which had resulted, according to an Einsatzgruppen report, in the shooting of 21 allegedly “thieving Jewish terrorists.”⁶ The “Jewish residential district” consisted of only one street and was liquidated in December after only about a month. In some of these open ghettos, individual specialist Jews, such as a dentist, were left alive for a while longer after the main shooting Aktion, as their services were still required. These open ghettos reflect a pattern similar to the open ghettos established by the military authorities further to the west, for example, in areas that were subsequently incorporated into Generalkommissariat Zhitomir.

Since most of the ghettos were improvised and several served primarily as holding pens until the Jews could be murdered, the living conditions were deplorable. A detailed description has been given by a survivor of the Khar’kov ghetto: “Hundreds of people were settled in barracks intended for 60 to 70 people. In the ghetto the Germans starved people and prevented them from going out to get water and food. At night people were prevented from going outside even for the needs of nature. Anyone spotted violating the established regime was immediately shot. Many people became sick and died. The corpses of the dead remained in the barracks.”⁷ The Jews were robbed and plundered by the German and Ukrainian police; and local people plundered their vacated apartments. Jews attempting to leave the ghetto were shot by men of the German police battalion on guard. The Khar’kov ghetto existed for only about three weeks before all the inmates were shot.⁸

Little is known about the Jewish Councils in these ghettos, as there is little to no information available on them. Such councils were definitely established, for example, in the ghettos in Priluki and Yalta. In Yalta, the Jewish Council was made responsible for organizing the transfer of the Jews into the ghetto and also organized workshops, a hospital, and a Jewish police force inside the ghetto.

The exploitation of forced labor was not a significant factor in the establishment of most of these ghettos, but it occurred in several, including the ghettos in Stalino and Dzhankoi. To the northwest of Khar’kov, in both Dmitrovka and Bogodukhov, small groups of Jews were confined within a single building and taken out daily to perform forced labor—in the case of Bogodukhov, for several months before the Germans shot them. There is a report of a third small ghetto, in Danilovka, not far from Bogodukhov, but it was not possible to locate this site with certainty using available maps.⁹ In the open ghettos of the Chernigov oblast’, forced labor for Jews was introduced prior to ghettoization and presumably continued up until just before the liquidation Aktions. The ghetto in Belopol’e, established in 1942 for the remaining Jews found there, was intended as a means to exploit them as forced laborers.¹⁰

There is little detailed evidence of organized resistance in these short-lived ghettos other than attempts to evade registration and ghettoization and some escape attempts that often cost Jews their lives. In the enclosed ghetto of Priluki, tunnels were dug to enable young Jews to sneak out and scavenge for food. Those who did escape successfully from the ghettos often received some assistance from, or managed to pass as, non-Jews. Those from mixed marriages had better chances for these reasons. Jews also had more success if they moved away from their former place of residence, to reduce the danger of their being recognized and denounced.

A few of the ghettos or camps in these regions also included some non-Jewish prisoners. In Dzhankoi, non-Jewish peasants who had assisted the Jews were confined with them. Available sources indicate that the ghetto or camp in Kramatorsk may also have contained non-Jews, either alongside the Jews or possibly after the Jews had been murdered. In Alushta, Crimea, Gypsies were confined with the Jews in a single building closely guarded by the Tartar militia.

Places of temporary confinement for Jews, or destruction ghettos, which existed for only a few days, were established at several locations in Crimea, most notably in Feodosiia and Evpatoriia. These locations have not been given separate entries in this volume because the Jews were confined for only a week or less.¹¹ For example, in Feodosiia, about 800 Jews were held in a prison “ghetto” for a few days as an integral part of the killing Aktion there in early December 1941.¹² In Evpatoriia, around 750 Jews were confined from November 21, 1941, in a former military school building. Exactly how long they were held there is uncertain. However, contemporary German documentation suggests it was only hours, or a few days, before the men of Sonderkommando 11a shot them all. The town was declared to be free of Jews by December 15.¹³ In Simferopol’, the Germans established a Judenrat and subjected the Jews to making large monetary contributions and forced labor, but no formal ghetto was established. From December 9, 1941, Sonderkommando 11b ordered the Krimchaks and Jews to assemble at several collection points; then they shot them successively over the following four days, implying some temporary confinement during the course of the Aktion. In the weeks that followed, additional Jews were found and shot, bringing the total number of Jews murdered in Simferopol’ to around 10,000, in addition to 1,500 Krimchaks. The children of mixed marriages involving Jews were murdered here using a gas van in July 1942.¹⁴

In the winter of 1941–1942, the advance of the Red Army successfully liberated one ghetto in Crimea. After capturing the village of Voikovshtadt in November 1941, the German [End Page 1757] authorities established a small ghetto in one building on the outskirts of the village for the less than 100 Jews who remained. The ghetto was surrounded with barbed wire and guarded by Romanian troops. The landing of Soviet forces on the Kerch’ peninsula on December 26, 1941, forced the Germans to retreat, enabling the Red Army to liberate the remaining Jews in the Voikovshtadt ghetto. They were then evacuated, together with the Soviet forces, before the Germans reoccupied the village in May 1942.¹⁵

Nearly all the ghettos in this region existed for only a few weeks. Most of the mass shootings conducted to liquidate the ghettos were organized by the respective detachments of Einsatzgruppen C and D, assisted by locally based units of the Waffen-SS, the Wehrmacht, the Order Police, and Ukrainian, Tartar, or other native auxiliaries. Some of the smaller Aktions, however, were conducted without the participation of the Einsatzgruppen. Large ditches or ravines were used in most cases for the mass shootings, but in Artemovsk the Jews were shot in an alabaster mine, which was sealed afterwards, once the task was completed. By July 1942, all of these ghettos had been liquidated.

The last occupying German forces were driven from the region with the conquest of the Crimea by the Red Army during the course of April and May 1944. Precise figures are not available, but it seems likely that of the Jews trapped by the German occupation in this region, only a few hundred managed to survive. The postwar populations in these towns and cities were composed overwhelmingly of Jews who had returned (or arrived) from the Soviet interior or the Red Army.