Ostrozec

Jews first settled in Ostrożec at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1897, under the rule of the Russian Empire, the Jewish population of the town was 636, or roughly 43 percent of its total population. After World War I Ostrożec was incorporated into the independent Polish state. According to the 1921 population census, 632 Jews, who comprised 37 percent of the total population, were living in Ostrożec. Most of the Jews were artisans. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Ostrożec became part of Soviet Ukraine. It is estimated that by mid-1941 there were probably about 750 Jews in the town. The Germans occupied Ostrożec on June 26, 1941. Shortly afterward, Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David (that was replaced in September by a yellow patch) to be worn on the front and back of their clothes. They were required to perform forced labor, prohibited from leaving the town, and subjected to frequent beatings and robberies by the Ukrainian auxiliary police. In August 1941 German security forces shot several dozen Jewish men in a grove outside the town. On German orders a Jewish council (Judenrat) was established; it had to collect "contributions" in the form of money and goods for the German authorities and supply Jews for forced labor. In the spring of 1942 the German authorities ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Ostrożec. At about this time the Jews of the nearby town of Targowica were taken on foot to the Ostrożec ghetto, that consisted of about half of the town surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Ukrainian policemen. The ghetto was extremely overcrowded. Forced labor assignments included sorting potatoes, moving stones, and road construction, while some Jews worked for farmers in the surrounding area. On October 9, 1942 many inmates of the ghetto were shot to death by a German unit at the Jewish cemetery near the town. According to one witness, many of the Jews who initially escaped were either found hiding in the ghetto, were denounced, or returned to the ghetto of their own free will over the following days and weeks. Shooting operations directed against small groups of Jews carried on for at least two more weeks. Overall, at least 700 Jews were shot to death. Ostrożec was liberated by the Red Army on February 12, 1944.