Czernawczyce

Czarnawczyce was known as a village in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Jewish community of Czarnawczyce was established in the first half of the 17th Century. According to contemporary references, it was subordinated to the Brześć nad Bugiem community. In 1795, the village was joined to the Russian Empire. In 1875, there were 175 Jews living in Czarnawczyce, making up almost 29 percent of its total population. In 1921, Czarnawczyce became part of the Republic of Poland. According to a census carried out that year, the local Jewish community numbered 428 people, constituting 57 percent of the total population. From September 1939 until June 22, 1941, Czarnawczyce was under Soviet rule. The town was occupied by the Nazis in late June 1941. The Jews of Czarnawczyce – and, according to some sources, those of Domaczevo, as well – were imprisoned in a ghetto and forced to work building roads. In late September 1942, the first group of 300-350 local Jews were sent to the Wołczyn Ghetto, where they were murdered alongside the Jews of Wołczyn. In 1942, approximately 200 Jewish men from the Czarnawczyce Ghetto were shot near the village of Turna Mała. Two additional groups of Jews were murdered in that year and the following one in the Dichka grazing area. Czarnawczyce was liberated on July 24, 1944.