Aleksandrja

A few Jews remained after the destruction of Aleksandrja (Aleksandria) in the Chmielnicki disturbances of 1648-1649. In 1897 the community grew to 2,154 (out of the total of 3,189) with the development of light industry and the building of a railroad line between Równe and Sarny and harbor. After World War I Aleksandria was incorporated into the independent Polish State. In 1921 there were 1,293 Jews, who comprised roughly 73 percent of the total population. Zionist parties and its youth organizations (HaShomer Hatzair, Beitar, Gordonia and HeHalutz Hatzair) were active in the town. Aleksandria had a Tarbut Zionist Hebrew-language school. In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the city, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Aleksandria became part of Soviet Ukraine. It is estimated that 1,500 Jews would have been living in Aleksandria on the eve of the Soviet-German war. After the German invasion to the USSR on June 22, 1941, some Jews were able to evacuate to the east, leaving more than 1,000 Jews at the start of the German occupation. Germans captured Aleksandria on July 1, 1941. On July 1-4, Ukrainian nationalists carried out anti-Jewish pogroms, including the burning of synagogues and plundering of the Jewish homes. They also murdered several Jews. On July 31, 85 Jews, mainly males, along with some pro-Soviet activists were killed by SD unit on the bank of the Horyn River. In the summer and fall of 1941, the German occupying forces implemented a number of discriminatory measures against the Jews in Aleksandria: a Jewish council (Judenrat) headed by Avigdor Grushka with nine members was appointed. Jews were ordered to wear distinguishing marks (initially the Star of David, then later a yellow circle). They were assigned to perform hard labor, sometimes without pay; and they were forbidden to leave the confines of the town. They also had to pay a high ransom to German authorities. Apparently in late August 1942 Germans ordered all the local Jews (about 1,000 people) to be concentrated in a ghetto, which was established on a side street and surrounded by a fence and barbed wire along the banks of the Horyn River. The ghetto was liquidated on September 23, 1942 when its inmates were killed by German units assisted by Ukrainian auxiliary police in the nearby Svyattya Forest. Several dozens Jews managed to flee on the eve of the ghetto's liquidation and were hiding in the town and its surroundings. Some of them were caught in the subsequent days and killed at the bank of Horyn River. Others were lured by Karl Heifler, a landwirt (agricultural leader) of Aleksandria and returned to the town. On October 28, 1942 they all were captured and shot by a German unit at the Jewish cemetery of Aleksandria. Aleksandria was liberated by the Red Army on January 31 (or February 5) 1944.