Werba

After World War I Werba was incorporated into the independent Polish state. According to the 1921 census, the town had 228 Jews or roughly 50 percent of the total population. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Werba became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Germans occupied Werba on June 25, 1941. In the summer and fall of 1941 the Germans introduced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Werba. The Jews were ordered to wear armbands bearing the Star of David (replaced later with a yellow patch). The Jews had to perform forced labor and were not permitted to leave the limits of the town. The German authorities also ordered the establishment of a Judenrat (Jewish council), which was responsible for assigning Jews to forced labor tasks, such as chopping wood for the Germans and performing agricultural work. On May 20, 1942 the German authorities established a ghetto on two streets of the town. Jews from the neighboring villages were also resettled there. The ghetto inmates suffered greatly from overcrowding. The craftsmen and their families lived in a separate section of the ghetto apart from the rest of the Jews. The ghetto was guarded by the Ukrainian police, who imposed a strict curfew. On May 30, 1942 the Germans conducted the first murder operation against the Jews in the ghetto (with the exception of the craftsmen and their families), when about 350 Jews were shot to death outside the town, near the village of Hranówka. After this murder operation the Germans promised not to kill those who had survived and, as a result, the few Jews who had hidden successfully emerged to join the craftsmen in the remaining part of the ghetto. However, in August 1942 the Germans and Ukrainian police conducted a second murder operation, shooting the remaining Jews of Werba. Including those discovered and shot in searches just after the murder operation, around 80 Jews were shot to death. Werba was liberated by the Red Army on March 19, 1944.