Poworsk

At the end of 19th century, under the Russian Empire, after the Sarny-Kovel-Brest Litovsk railway line was laid, Jews were allowed to settle in Powórsk. After War World I Powórsk was incorporated into the independent Polish state. In 1921 the Jewish population of the town was only 37 out of the total population of 779, but by the 1930s it increased to more than 200. The Jews of Powórsk were timber merchants, artisans, and craftsmen. Until 1935 a branch of the Beitar Zionist youth movement was active in the town. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Powórsk became part of Soviet Ukraine. During this period many Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland settled in the town. The Germans occupied Powórsk on June 26, 1941. Shortly afterward, a Judenrat headed by Rabbi Avraham Citrin was set up in the town. The Jews were sent to cut down trees, build bridges, and perform other kinds of forced labor. The Jewish community also had to pay "taxes" in the form of valuables, gold, etc. Apparently in early August 1942, an open ghetto was set up on one street in the town and guarded by Ukrainian auxiliary police. At the end of the same month Jews from the surrounding villages were taken to the Powórsk ghetto. On September 4, 1942 the Jews of the ghetto were shot to death by a German unit and some Ukrainian auxiliary policemen on the outskirts of the town, at craters created by the explosion of gasoline tanks, on the territory of the former Soviet military base. Powórsk was liberated by the Red Army on February 3, 1944.