Studenitsa

Jews probably began to settle in Studenitsa in the late 16th century. In 1703, the local Jewish community suffered from attacks by Cossacks. In 1897, there were 556 Jews in the town, making up 29.1 percent of the total population. Under Soviet rule, with private enterprise having been banned from the early 1930s onward, many Jews turned to work in cooperatives. In 1926, the town was home to 363 Jews, who made up 21.1 percent of the total population. The Germans occupied Studenitsa in early July 1941. Few Jews had managed to escape into the Soviet interior by that point. The town's remaining Jews were ordered to wear white armbands (later replaced by yellow patches) with blue Stars of David on their chests and backs, and to perform various types of forced labor. In the spring of 1942, Jewish youths were taken away to pave roads, including the road from Staraya Ushitsa to Kamenets-Podolsk. On July 22 or 23, the Jews of Studenitsa were taken out of town and shot dead, together with the Jews of Staraya Ushitsa. Gebeitskommisar (regional commissar) Reindl was in charge of this murder operation. According to one testimony, on September 13, 1942 Jewish youths from Studenitsa who had been employed in paving roads were taken to a grove near the labor camp where they were being held, and forced to strip naked, in preparation for being shot. However, at the last moment the Germans rescinded the execution order, and the Jews were taken instead to a camp in Kamenets-Podolsk, to perform forced labor. Later, they were killed together with the last Jews of the Kamenets-Podolsk area. Studenitsa was liberated by the Red Army in early March 1944.