Uscilug

Jews resided in Uściług from the 17th century. After the Second and Third Partitions of Poland (1793 and 1795) the Volhyn District, including Uściług, became part of the Russian Empire. In 1897 the Jewish population amounted to 3,212 or 89 percent of the total population. During World War I, in 1915, after the retreat of the Russian army the majority of the Jews left the town; they returned several days later. After World War I Uściług was incorporated into the independent Polish state. It is estimated that during this period about 2,700 Jews lived in the town, where they comprised 75 percent of its population. Many of town's Jewish residents were craftsmen or small merchants. From the 1920s a Zionist Hebrew-language network of educational institutions operated the Tarbut and Yavneh schools in Uściług, along with a kindergarten. Many Zionist parties (such as HaMizrachi, Poale Zion, and the Revisionists) and youth movements (HeHalutz HaTzair, HaShomer HaTzair, and Beitar) were active in the town. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the city following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Uściług became part of Soviet Ukraine. Due to the town's proximity to the German occupation zone, the Soviets restricted its residents' movements. On the eve of the war, the Soviets deported about 25 percent of the Jewish population, including many refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland, primarily to the nearby city of Włodzimierz Wołyński, farther from the border area. The Germans captured the town on June 22, 1941. During the attack they bombarded the town, causing a fire that destroyed most of the houses. In the summer and autumn of 1941 a series of anti-Jewish measures was implemented in Uściług. Jews were ordered to wear distinguishing symbols, such as the Star of David (replaced later with a patch in the shape of a yellow circle), assigned to forced labor, and not permitted to leave the area of the town. They were also subjected to systematic looting and beatings by the Ukrainian auxiliary police. In late July or early August a Judenrat (Jewish council) headed by Mikhel Shafran and a Jewish police (Order Service) were set up in the town. Via the Judenrat the Germans extorted "contributions," in the form of money, valuables, clothing, furs, etc. In October 1941, under the pretext of being sent to work, several dozen Jews, including notables and members of the local intelligentsia were shot to death outside the town. Shortly afterward, a group of young Jews was arrested and shot to death near the Jewsh cemetery. In March 1942 the German authorities established a ghetto in Uściług. Soon the severe overcrowding and terrible living conditions in the ghetto led to an outbreak of typhus. To prevent the further spread of the disease, German Gendarmerie men sent Ukrainian auxiliary police into the ghetto to kill anyone who had a fever. The ghetto was liquidated in the first half of September 1942 when its inmates were transported to the city of Włodzimierz Wołyński and murdered in the nearby village of Piatydni, along with the Jews from the Włodzimierz Wołyński ghetto. A small group of workers from the town was left alive after the liquidation of the ghetto to work in a Wehrmacht forced labor camp near Włodzimierz Wołyński. These Jews were murdered in the winter of 1942- 1943. Uściług was liberated by the Red Army on July 20, 1944.