Bereznica

Jews lived in Bereżnica from the early 17th century. During the uprising of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, some 100 Jews were killed in the town. In 1897, under the rule of the Russian Empire, Bereżnica was home to 2,160 Jews, who made up 73 percent of the total population. After World War I, Bereżnica was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. By 1921, the town's Jewish population had declined sharply; that year, Jews made up about 54 percent of the town's 2,434 inhabitants. In the interwar period, many local Jews made their living from trade and crafts. The town had a Hebrew school and a modern Talmud Torah. Zionist societies and youth movements were also active in the town; the Beitar youth movement ran a pioneer training commune in Bereżnica. After September 17, 1939, in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Red Army arrived in the town, and Bereżnica became part of Soviet Ukraine. The Germans occupied Bereżnica in early July 1941. Immediately upon the arrival of the German forces, local Ukrainians staged a pogrom in the town. Many Jews were robbed and assaulted, and a number of people were seriously wounded. In summer 1941, a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established in Bereżnica. In the summer and fall of 1941, the Germans introduced a series of anti-Jewish decrees in Bereżnica. The Jews were ordered to wear distinctive markings in the form of a Star of David (later replaced with a yellow circle); they had to mark their houses with a six-pointed blue star; they were prohibited from leaving the town; all Jews above the age of 14 were required to perform heavy manual labor. In early May 1942, an open ghetto was established in Bereżnica, and it housed about 1,000 inmates. On August 26, 1942, the Germans and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police liquidated the Bereżnica Ghetto, relocating all of its inmates to the Poleska camp in Sarny, and shooting many of them on the way. On August 27-28, 1942, after several of the new arrivals had participated in the mass escape from the Poleska camp, the remaining Jews of Bereżnica were murdered – along with the Jews of Sarny, Rokitno, Dąbrowica, Klesów, and Tomaszgorod – in the Tutowicze Forest outside Sarny. Bereżnica was liberated by the Red Army in January 1944.