Kołki

Jews resided in Kołki from the mid-16th century. During the Cmelnitsky uprising (1648-1649) its large community was destroyed. In 1897 there were 2,537 Jews living in the town, comprising 75.7 percent of a total population. Most of town's Jews exported timber and agricultural products, while others engaged in small business or handicrafts. In 1915, during the fighting between the Russian and German armies in World War I, the town was burned down and many of its Jewish residents fled, with only 724 (out of 2,145) returning after the war. After Kołki was incorporated into the independent Polish state in 1918, Jewish life revived. The Tarbut Hebrew-language Zionist network of educational institutions operated four public libraries for children and adults and, until 1927, a Hebrew school as well. Also active in the town were various Zionist and non-Zionist organizations and youth movements - Hashomer Hatzair, Maccabi, and the Bund. In 1925 a training center for the Hehalutz Zionist pioneering organization was established in Kołki. In 1937 there were 860 Jews living in the town. In September 1939, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the German and Soviet invasions of Poland, Kołki became part of Soviet Ukraine. Under the Soviets, when private businesses were closed down many Jews switched to agricultural work. Zionist and other Jewish public organizations were banned. The Germans captured Kołki on July 8, 1941. According to one testimony, on the same day they, along with local Ukrainians, looted Jewish property. This testimony also reported that shortly afterward the Germans kidnapped several dozen elderly Jewish men and women, including Ben Zion Chwaker, the most influential person in town, and forced them into the Styr River. By throwing stones at them, the Germans wounded some of them and killed others. Afterwards the Germans cut off the side locks and beards of many Jews. During this humiliation and abuse they also beat some old Jews to death. Shortly afterwards, on German orders, a "Judenrat" (Jewish council), headed by Mordechay Kaufman and Yakov Shlain, was established, as well as a Jewish order police. The Jews had to wear yellow Stars of David (replaced after September 1941 with yellow patches). They also had to hand over to the Germans all their gold and other valuables. Apparently in July 1941, several dozen Jewish men, including the town's dignitaries, were abducted on the street and taken outside the town, near the Styr River, supposedly for work, but they were all shot to death. About 3,000 Jews, including some refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland and the Jewish residents from areas around the town were incarcerated in the ghetto that had been set up in October. The ghetto was overcrowded and, due to the lack of food and poor hygienic conditions, disease spread, causing many fatalities. The Jews were made to engage in forced labor in the nearby forest, repair the bridge over the Styr River, and do other kinds of hard work. Apparently in late August 1942, the liquidation of the Kołki ghetto began. After being collected, the Jews (mainly women, children, and elderly people) were taken to the Gorbki Forest (Gurki, in Ukrainian) outside the town, where they were all shot to death by security policemen and Gendarmerie murder squads. According to one testimony, after the murder a group of Jewish men who had been kept alive in the ghetto was made to sort the Jewish possessions that had been left there. These men were allowed to remain in the ghetto where they were soon joined by Jews found in hiding. In October 1942 the ghetto was surrounded by Gendarmerie men and Ukrainian auxiliary police. Those who had remained there (including some women and children) were taken to the same murder site, where they were shot to death by security policemen and an SD murder squad. Kołki was liberated by the Red Army on February 5, 1944.