Berezne

Jews began to settle in Bereźne in the mid-16th century. During the uprising of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, fifty Jewish families lost their lives, and the community of Bereźne did not experience significant growth until the 19th century. In 1897, under the rule of the Russian Empire, the town was home to 2,765 Jews, who made up sixty-eight percent of the total population. After World War I, Bereźne was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. In 1921, Bereźne had 2,372 Jewish residents, comprising fifty-eight percent of the total population. In the interwar period, local Jews were petty traders and artisans. They also owned flour and lumber mills. Bereźne had schools affiliated with the Tarbut, TsISHO (Central Yiddish School Organization), and Yavne networks, as well as two Jewish libraries. Zionist parties and their youth organizations (e.g., Hashomer Hatzair, Gordonia, and Beitar) were active in the town, which was also home to a cell of Bundists. After September 17, 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Bereźne became part of Soviet Ukraine. All the private Jewish businesses were nationalized, and the Zionist Hebrew-language Tarbut school was closed down. Some wealthy Jews, whom the Soviet authorities regarded as enemies of the new regime, were deported to Siberia. The Germans occupied Bereźne on July 6, 1941. Immediately afterward, anti-Semitic Ukrainians massacred and robbed the Jews. A Jewish Council (Judenrat) headed by Yoel Gilberg was set up in the town, along with a Jewish police force. In the summer and fall of 1941, the German occupying authorities introduced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Bereźne. Jews were required to pay a ransom and wear distinguishing yellow stars on the front and back of their clothes; whole families were sent to perform forced labor in and near the town. In the fall of 1941, some 300 local Jews were sent to a labor camp in the town of Kostopol. On October 6, 1941 (the first day of the Sukkot holiday), the German authorities set up a ghetto in Bereźne, which was surrounded with a wooden fence and barbed wire. A separate open ghetto for skilled workers and their families was established nearby. A total of at least 1,500 Jews lived in the two ghettos. From mid-June 1942, Jews from the neighboring villages (e.g., Mokwin, Małyńsk, Yarinowka, and Polyany) were resettled in the ghetto, swelling its population to about 3,000. On August 25-26, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated by an SD unit, and its inmates were shot near the Christian cemetery outside of town. Some 200 Jews, including several inmates of the labor camp in Kostopol, tried to escape or go into hiding. Many of them were captured or denounced by the Ukrainians and murdered. Bereźne was liberated by the Red Army on January 9, 1944.