Beresteczko

The Jewish community of Beresteczko dates from the 16th century. During the uprising (1648-1649) of Bogdan Chmelnitsky almost all the Jews of Beresteczko were murdered or fled. After the second and third partitions of Poland (in 1793 and 1795) the Volhyn District, including Beresteckzo, became part of the Russian Empire. The Jewish population of the town grew steadily when Beresteckzo became a transit point for Russian- Austrian trade, in 1897 reaching 2,251 or 45.4 percent of the total population. After World War I, Beresteczko was incorporated into the independent Polish state. Jews were prominent in the economic life of the town - most crafts and trades were in Jewish hands. Zionist political parties and youth movements (such as HeHalutz, HeHalutz Hatzair, and Hashomer Hatzair) were active in the town. A Hebrew-language Tarbut school and a Hebrew library were at the center of local Jewish educational-cultural activity, but a Yiddish literary group also functioned in Beresteczko. According statistical data, in 1937 2,625 Jews lived in Beresteczko, where they comprised 35 percent of the total population. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Beresteczko became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Soviet authorities closed down most private businesses (many owned by Jews) and Jewish communal organizations. Local craftsmen were compelled to work in new established cooperatives. The Soviets also arrested and deported people (including Jews) suspected of disloyalty to the new regime; some Zionist youth leaders sought refuge in the city of Łuck to avoid arrest. Beresteczko was occupied by the Germans on June 23, 1941. In the summer and fall of 1941 the Germans introduced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Beresteczko. Jews were ordered to wear distinguishing marks bearing the Star of David on their clothes. They were also compelled to perform forced labor and were forbidden to leave the town. The German authorities also forced the Jewish community to pay "taxes." On August 8, 1941 300 Jewish men were shot to death near the town's castle, in the Racibrowski yard, by a unit of the Security Police and SD. Apparently about the same time, a Judenrat (Jewish council), consisting of six people, and a Jewish police force were established. The Jewish council had to collect the "taxes" levied by the German authorities. In October 1941, a ghetto enclosed by a fence and barbed wire was set up in the town. Jews from several surrounding villages were also imprisoned there. Ukrainian auxiliary police guarded the ghetto and shot anyone who attempted to escape. Overcrowding in the ghetto was extreme, with a number of families living in each house. Skilled workers with high-demand occupations were housed in separate quarters outside the ghetto, which was not closed. These craftsmen were organized into workshops according to profession. Several hundred Jews, some of them from the Beresteczko ghetto, were employed all over the Gorochów District, including in cutting down trees and road construction. In early September 1942 the inmates of the ghetto and those craftsmen who had not been interned in the ghetto were shot to death by German units outside the town, near the Ranczina machine and tractor station. Beresteczko was liberated by the Red Army on April 1, 1944.