Niesuchojeze

Jews were living in Niesuchojeże (Neskhizh in Yiddish) from the mid-16th century. From the mid-18th century to the early 20th century religious life in the town was dominated by the Shapira branch of the Neskizh Hasidic dynasty. In 1897, under the Russian Empire, the Jewish population stood at 814 or roughly 50 percent of the total population. After World War I Niesuchojeże was incorporated into the independent Polish state. In 1921 Jews comprised 94 percent of the total population of 469. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Niesuchojeże became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Germans captured the town on June 26, 1941. Shortly afterwards they established a Judenrat (Jewish council). All the Jews were ordered to wear an armband with the Star of David. They also had to pay a high ransom and to perform different types of forced labor. A nighttime curfew was imposed as well. According to one testimony, at the beginning of 1942 25 young Jewish girls were rounded up, stripped naked, and beaten, while some of them were raped as well. In August 1942 several hundred Jews were taken to open pits in the center of the town (or, according to another testimony, on the outskirts of the town) and shot to death. Several Jews managed to escape and later join the Soviet partisans. Niesuchojeże was liberated by the Red Army on April 1, 1944. Today the town no longer exists.