Wysock

A Jewish community existed in Wysock from the early 17th century. In 1897, the town was home to 880 Jews, who made up ninety-six percent of the total population. After World War I, Wysock was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. In 1921, Jews made up thirty percent of the total population of the town, which stood at 2,978. In the interwar period, the Jews of Wysock made their living from petty trade, peddling, crafts, and agriculture. Until the late 1920s, the town had a Talmud Torah and a Hebrew-language Tarbut school. Zionist parties and their youth movements (e.g., HeHalutz Hatzair) were prominent in Wysock. The Bund, too, was active in the town, as were the Jewish Communists, who had to operate illegally. Following September 17, 1939, in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Red Army entered Wysock, and the town became part of Soviet Ukraine. Under Soviet rule, Wysock was connected to the power grid; its roads were paved, and new factories and offices were opened, offering new employment opportunities for Jews. Following the German invasion of the USSR, only a handful of Jews, mostly youths and Communists, joined the Soviet officials who were being evacuated from the town. German troops occupied Wysock on July 17, 1941. Following the German occupation, all the Jews were registered, and the town's new authorities passed a series of anti-Jewish decrees. The Jews were required to pay a large ransom, hand over their furs and large amounts of property, wear an armband with the word "Jude" (which was replaced with a yellow badge in late September), and perform forced labor. The summer of 1941 saw the establishment of a twelve-member Jewish council (Judenrat) headed by Yitshak Goldberg, and a small Jewish police force. In August 1941, some 170 Jewish women and children arrived in Wysock from nearby Dawidgródek. They had been driven out of that town following the mass shooting of the local men by an SS cavalry unit. Sometime before the summer of 1942, a group of about 150 Jews from the surrounding villages were moved into Wysock. They were distributed among the residences of the local Jews. In late July 1942, a ghetto was established in Wysock. It was fenced off with barbed wire, and housed a total of about 1,500 inmates: some 1,200 Jews from Wysock itself, some 170 Jews from Horodek, and some 150 Jews from nearby villages. Epidemics, especially typhus, soon broke out in the ghetto. The Wysock Ghetto was liquidated on September 9, 1942, and its inmates were shot outside the town, on the bank of the Horyn River, by various German units that were assisted by the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. During this murder operation, some Jews tried to escape by swimming across the Horyn River. A number of them managed to reach the opposite bank, while others drowned or were shot dead in the water. Wysock was liberated by the Red Army on January 12, 1944.