Wyzwa Nowa

Jews resided in Wyżwa from the mid-16th century. After the Brest Litowsk-Kowel railroad was built at the end of the 19th century, a train station was opened in Wyżwa. The new settlement around the area of the railroad station, that received the name Novaya Vyzhva, attracted many Jews, thus causing the Jewish population to grow steadily. After World War I the town was incorporated into the independent Polish state and from that time the town was known as Wyżwa Nowa. During the interwar years the 400 Jews in the town comprised 20 percent of its total population. The Jews were mostly artisans, craftsmen, or petty merchants. Several Jews owned flour mills. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Wyżwa Nowa became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Germans occupied Wyżwa Nowa on June 27, 1941. Shortly afterward, the Jews were ordered to wear armbands with a blue Star of David. The livestock and many basic possessions of the local Jews were confiscated. A curfew between seven in the evening and seven in the morning was imposed on the Jews. They were also taken for forced labor. Apparently during this time, a Judenrat (Jewish council) headed by Yefim Langer, was appointed. On August 5, 1941 260 Jewish residents of Wyżwa Nowa were murdered near the town of Maciejów. In September and December 1941 the Germans demanded that the Jews pay heavy ransoms. The Jewish community was able to hand over the full amount the first time. In the summer of 1942 the town's remaining Jews and those from nearby villages were forced to live together, apparently in an open ghetto. On August 23 of that year all these Jews were murdered outside the town, in the forest near Czewel village. On the eve of the liquidation of the ghetto, some of its residents set many buildings on fire, enabling dozens of Jews to escape. However, only a few survived. Nowa Wyżwa was liberated by the Red Army on July 18, 1944.