Targowica

Jews settled in Targowica (Truvits in Yiddish) in the second half of the 16th century. In 1897, under the Russian Empire, the 891 local Jews comprised 98 percent of the town's total population. After World War I Targowica was incorporated into the independent Polish state. According to the 1921 census, 660 Jews (comprising 68 percent of the total population) were living in Targowica. Most of the town's Jews were engaged in small scale trade or crafts. Jewish political activity, especially of a Zionist orientation, existed in the town: there were several Zionist youth movements (HeHalutz Hatzair, Hashomer Hatzair, and Beitar) and, from the 1920s, there was also a branch of the HeHalutz agricultural training commune. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Targowica became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Germans occupied Targowica at the end of June 1941. Shortly thereafter, 20 Jews who had been accused of being Communists were murdered. In the summer of 1941 the Jews were ordered to establish a Judenrat (Jewish council) and a Jewish police force. On August 1, 1941 130 Jewish men, including the rabbi of Targowica, were shot to death in a barn just outside the town. In the spring of 1942 the remaining Jews of Targowica were taken on foot to the ghetto situated in the nearby town of Ostrożec. On October 9, 1942, during the liquidation of the Ostrożec ghetto, the Jews from Targowica were shot to death, along with the local Jews, at the Jewish cemetery near Ostrożec. Targowica was liberated by the Red Army at the beginning of February 1944.