Vcherayshe

In the early 20th century, Vcherayshe was home to some 1,000 Jews. During the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), Red Army troops carried out a pogrom there. Under Soviet rule, modernization and urbanization prompted many Jews to leave the town, and, by the late 1930s, there were only some 500 Jews left in Vcherayshe. The town had a Jewish ethnic soviet (council) and a Yiddish school. A considerable number of local Jews were artisans, and many were organized in cooperatives. Vcherayshe was occupied by German troops on July 16, 1941. Around August that year, a number of local Jews were murdered, along with some Soviet activists. The Germans ordered the Jews to wear a Yellow Star of David on their chest and right arm. All of the town's Jews were concentrated in a ghetto, which was set up along a single street on the edge of town. The ghetto was not fenced off, but surrounded by a steep ravine that hindered access to it from three sides. The Jews were forbidden to leave the ghetto without a permit. The Germans appointed a German-speaking Jew named Davidov as head of the Judenrat. All orphans in the ghetto were distributed among the families of the artisans (e.g., shoemakers and carpenters) and others. Living conditions in the ghetto were relatively tolerable. Food was procured by individuals who performed forced labor outside the ghetto, or bartered for valuables. Local Ukrainians were permitted to bring food into the ghetto. As winter approached, Jews from nearby settlements – including Verkhovnya, Ruzhin, Berdichev, Belopolye, Belilovka, and Skvira – were moved into the ghetto. The inmates were aware that Jews from the area were being murdered. On April 30, 1942, upon learning that the Ukrainians had been dispatched to dig a mass grave, a number of Jews tried to escape. The head of the Judenrat appealed to the Ukrainian authorities, who denied the rumors. Nevertheless, the inmates organized themselves to guard the ghetto. The Jews of Vcherayshe were shot in two major murder operations, on May 1, 1942, and, apparently, in July that year. After the second operation, there were only 30-40 Jewish artisans left in the ghetto. According to some sources, most of these were murdered in August-October 1943. Only about half a dozen of them survived.