Maniewicze

Jewish settlement in Maniewicze dates to the beginning of the 20th century, under the Russian Empire, due to the town's proximity to the Sarny-Kowel railway line. On the eve of World War I about 30 Jewish families lived in the town. Most of the Jews were engaged in the lumber business. In 1914, when the front was approaching the town, the Jews were expelled by the Austrian forces; the Jews returned in 1917. After World War I, Maniewicze was incorporated into the independent Polish state. In 1921 there were 462 Jews living in the town, where they comprised 57 percent of the total population. The town developed rapidly due to various types of wood-related production (such as sawmills and a parquet-flooring factory) and the local sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. In the interwar period a Hebrew-language Tarbut kindergarten and elementary school operated in the town. The Zionist youth movements Beitar and Hashomer Hatzair were active there as well. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Maniewicze became part of Soviet Ukraine. Under the Soviets the Tarbut school was replaced by a Yiddish-language school and Zionist activity was banned. During this period the Jewish population was increased by several hundred refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland and other places. A a result, the town had almost 2,000 Jews. The Germans occupied Maniewicze on June 28, 1941. About that time peasants from neighboring villages conducted extensive looting in the town. From July the Jews had to wear armbands (replaced later with yellow patches) on their outer clothing and to mark their homes with a Star of David. A curfew was imposed on the Jews after dark. They also had to perform various kinds of labor - Jewish men worked at the local parquet-flooring factory and at loading railroad ties, while the women worked at Polska Gora, where they repaired and maintained the rail line. During this period a Judenrat (Jewish council) was set up, headed by a refugee lawyer from Warsaw, Dr. Frucht. The Judenrat and Jewish police force were forced by the occupaion authorities to collect and hand over "tax" money. On August 26, 1941 several hundred Jewish men were arrested as Communists or Soviet activists and, under the pretext of being sent for work, were taken outside the town to the "Horse Graves" in the forest, near Czerewacha village, where they were shot to death by a German unit. On September 2, 1942 the surviving Jews had to move to an enclosed ghetto area. The Germans murdered the ghetto inmates on September 5, along with several hundred Jews from the town of Trojanówka who had been taken to the Maniewicze ghetto on September 3. The Jews were taken to the same Horse Graves murder site and shot to death by Germans and Ukrainians auxiliary policemen. Just before this operation was carried out a group of several hundred, mostly young, Jews succeeded in escaping to the nearby forests. Maniewicze was liberated by the Red Army on February 2, 1944.