Wiśniowiec Nowy

The first Jews settled in Wiśniowiec in the second half of the 16th century. In 1653, after suffering a defeat not far from the town, the Tatars sacked Wiśniowiec and murdered many of its Jewish residents. Nevertheless, soon afterward Jews returned to the town. During the 19th century the number of Jews there steadily increased. During this period many Jews were engaged in selling agricultural produce and other products. In 1897, under the rule of the Russian Empire, the town had 2,980 Jews, who comprised 71 percent of the total population. After World War I Wiśniowiec was incorporated into the independent Polish state as part of the Volhyn Region. In 1921 the town's 2,825 Jews comprised about 70 percent of its total population. The local Jews engaged in crafts, trade, and petty industry (mainly in clothing and goods). Jews also owned flour mills and manufactured edible oil. The town had a Hebrew-language Tarbut school, which for some time also operated a kindergarten. There were also a talmud torah and a yeshiva. Zionist parties and their youth organizations (such as Hashomer Hatzair, HeHalutz Hatzair, Beitar, and Dror) were active in Wiśniowiec. In 1937 the approximately 3,000 Jews living in Wiśniowiec comprised almost 60 percent of the town's total population. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Wiśniowiec became part of Soviet Ukraine. Shortly afterward, some Zionist activists and wealthy Jews were deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities. It is estimated that by the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 there were about 4,000 Jews living in the town, including some refugees from Nazi-occupied central and western Poland. The Germans occupied Wiśniowiec on July 1, 1941. Almost immediately, local Ukrainians, with encouragement from the Germans, looted Jewish property and attacked Jews. On July 10 or 12, 35 Jews who had been taken hostage were murdered by the Ukrainian auxiliary police in the building of the former Soviet police station in the town. On July 30, 400 Jewish men, including the local rabbi, were shot to death outside the town. On September 4, 1941, a total of 146 Jews, residents of Wiśniowiec Stary, the old part of the town located on the right bank of the Goryn River, were shot to death outside the town. On March 16, 1942, the German authorities ordered the establishment of a ghetto in Wiśniowiec within three days. Several hundred Jews from the surrounding villages, including Świniuchy, Wyżgródek, and Oleśkincy, were relocated to Wiśniowiec around this time. Once the Jews had constructed the ghetto, it is estimated that more than 4,000 Jews were forced into it, and the Judenrat, that had been set up beforehand, took charge of its internal affairs. The chairman of the Judenrat was Koylnbrener, a refugee from Łodź. The small ghetto encompassed the area along one street. A high fence surrounded it, and all windows facing outward were blocked up. Every day the Judenrat had to send several dozen Jews for forced labor. The ghetto was very overcrowded and hunger and disease were rampant. On August 11-12 (or 14-15), 1942 most of the ghetto's inmates (mainly women and children) were shot to death in a ravine south-west of the town by German units and Ukrainian auxiliary police. Steiger, the "landwirte" (the senior German official) of Wiśniowiec, who also exercised authority over the ghetto of Wiśniowiec, headed this murder operation. In the following weeks the search for those Jews who had managed to hide during the initial ghetto clearance continued, with several follow-up murder operations during which the Gendarmerie (German rural order police) and Ukrainian auxiliary police murdered several hundred Jews. Thus, a week after the initial liquidation of the ghetto, 400 Jews were shot to death at the ravine outside the town, and after two more weeks – another 300. In the fall of 1942 several hundred more Jews were shot to death. By November 1942 the ghetto no longer existed and, consequently, there were no more Jews living in the town. A few young Jews who succeeded in escaping from Wiśniowiec reached the still existing ghettos of Zborów and Zbaraż in Eastern Galicia, that was part of the Generalgouvernement. Wiśniowiec was liberated by the Red Army on March 6, 1944.