Trojanowka

At the end of the 19th century, under the Russian Empire, several hundred Jews lived in Trojanówka. On the eve of World War II the town's 350 Jews comprised approximately half of its population. The local Jews engaged in agriculture, petty trade, and crafts. Several Zionist youth movements (HaShomer HaTzair, HeHalutz, and Beitar) were active in the town. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Trojanówka became part of Soviet Ukraine. Under the Soviets several dozen refugees from German-occupied Poland joined the local Jewish community. On June 26, 1941 the Germans occupied Trojanówka. In early August a group of Ukrainian bandits attacked the town. Several dozen Jewish men united to repel the attack; they fired at the assailants, killing their leader and driving off the others. Apparently during this time a Judenrat (Jewish council) was established in Trojanówka headed by a refugee named Gold, who was a lawyer. An open ghetto was set up in the town. The Jews had to pay "taxes" and to perform different kinds of forced labor, such as cutting down trees and loading wood onto train cars. On September 3, 1942 the Jews of Trojanówka were taken in the direction of the nearby town of Maniewicze. Apparently the elderly and the ill were shot in the forest near the village of Czerewacha. The rest of the Jews reached Maniewicze, where they were murdered on September 5th, along with the local Jewish residents, at the "Horse Graves," a woody area near Czerewacha village. During the liquidation of the Trojanówka ghetto about several hundred Jews fled to the forests. After the Germans promised that those who returned would not be harmed, some escapees, including Rabbi Yehoshua Melamed, came back to the town. All the returnees were murdered on the outskirts of the town. Trojanówka was liberated by the Red Army on February 3, 1944.