Łanowce

Jews probably settled in Łanowce in the second half of the 16th century. In 1897, under the Russian Empire, the Jewish population of the town numbered 1,174, comprising approximately 46 percent of its total population. During the Russian civil war several Jews suffered from the pogroms carried out in the town. After World War I Łanowce was incorporated into the independent Polish State. In 1921 the Jewish population stood at 640, comprising 30 percent of the total population of the town. During the interwar period many Jews engaged in crafts or petty trade, mainly in agricultural produce. The town had a Hebrew- language Tarbut school with an adjacent large Jewish library, and also a small yeshiva. Zionist organizations (such as Mizrachi, the Revisionists, General Zionists, HeHalutz), as well as youth movements (such as HeHalutz HaTzair and Beitar), were active in Łanowce. In 193, about 760 Jews were living in the town.

In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the town, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Łanowce became part of Soviet Ukraine. During this period several hundred Jewish refugees from the Nazi-occupied part of Poland arrived in the town. Subsequently, some of them were moved to the interior of the USSR, while others who refused to accept a Soviet citizenship, as well as some local Jews, were deported by the Soviet authorities to the Gulag.

After the German attack on the USSR on June 22, 1941, several Jewish families managed to evacuate to the east. However, most Jews did not want to leave or were unable to flee because of the rapid advance of the German troops. Therefore, the majority of the town's Jews came under German occupation.

The Germans captured Łanowce on July 3, 1941. Soon afterward, a group of local residents staged a pogrom that left 60 Jews dead, Jewish girls and women raped, and Jewish homes looted. Local Ukrainians also used this opportunity to settle their own personal scores. In August 1941 the Germans murdered a group of 10 elderly community dignitaries on the basis of lists prepared by the Ukrainians. Persons, mainly Jews, accused of cooperation with the Soviets were shot to death in the vicinity of the nearby village of Białozórka.

In the summer and fall of 194, the German authorities introduced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Łanowce. Jews were required to wear armbands bearing the Star of David (later replaced by a yellow patch sewn onto their chest and back). They also had to surrender all gold and valuable items, and were made to perform forced labor. The Germans established a Judenrat (Jewish council) to transmit their orders to the Jewish population and to ensure their prompt enforcement. On February 28, 1942 Germans ordered the Jews to construct a ghetto fence between 2 and 4 meters high, made of wooden planks. Within two or three days all the Jewish residents of Łanowce were forced into the designated ghetto area, together with Jews from Białozórka, other nearby villages, and also some Jews from the towns of Krzemieniec and Katerburg. In toto, there were about 2,000 inmates of the ghetto. The ghetto was in a small area around Targowa and Ogrodowa Streets, incorporating the beit midrash [study house] but only part of the Large Synagogue. Almost from the first day, the inmates of the ghetto suffered from hunger, with a number of people starving to death. Many of those who died were buried in mass graves inside the ghetto area. Jews were permitted to leave the ghetto only to perform forced labor. In the spring of 1942 the Germans demanded that 20 youths be sent to the city of Równe for forced labor. After 10 Jews had been arrested and shot to death for saying Kaddish the Jewish memorial prayer, only a few, mostly older, Jews continued to pray publicly.

The Germans liquidated the ghetto on August 14 (or, according to a Soviet document, on August 2) 1942 when its inmates were shot to death at the Jewish cemetery outside the town by a Security police and SD unit. A few Jews who had hid and managed to escape the shooting were subsequently caught by the Gendarmerie and Ukrainian auxiliary police and shot to death at the Jewish cemetery. Shortly after the liquidation of the ghetto, a group of 40 Jews who had been hiding at the home of a non-Jew, were also caught and shot to death in the area of the former ghetto.

Łanowce was liberated by the Red Army on March 5, 1944.