The Mizoch (Mizocz) Ghetto (german: Misotsch;
Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
: Мизоч;
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
: מיזאָטש) was a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
ghetto set up in the town of
Mizoch,
Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...
by Nazi Germany for the forcible segregation and mistreatment of Jews.
Background
Jews settled in Mizoch in the 18th century. In 1897, the total population of the town was 2,662 with 1,175 Jews owning factories for felt, oil and sugar production, as well as the flour mill and sawmills.
Some Jews emigrated during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. According to the national census of 1921 in the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
there were 845 Jews in Mizocz, most of them identifying with the
Turzysk Hasidism
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...
. Their numbers grew as the
Polish economy improved.
[Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder]
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust
page 832. It was an urban community between world wars like many others in
Kresy
Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic, it ...
(eastern Poland), inhabited by Jews and Poles along with members of other minorities including
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
. There was a military school in Mizocz for the
officer cadet
Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University Air ...
s of the Battalion 11 of the
Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
's First Brigade;
the Karwicki Palace (built in 1790, partly destroyed by the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
in 1917), Hotel Barmocha Fuksa,
a Catholic and an Orthodox church, and a Synagogue. The nearest major city was
Równo.
Mizoch is situated some east of
Dubno
Dubno ( uk, Ду́бно) is a city and municipality located on the Ikva River in Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Dubno Raion (district). The city is located on intersection of two major Eu ...
.
[JewishGen]
Jewish Communities in Volhynia
JewishGen Database, New York. Before the
German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the town, Mizocz, was located in the
Wołyń Voivodeship in the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
.
Annexed by the USSR following the 1939
Soviet invasion of eastern Poland, Mizocz was occupied by the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
in
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
, the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Some 300 Jews escaped with the retreating Soviets.
Uprising and mass killings
On 12 October 1942 the closed-off ghetto of about 1,700 Jews was surrounded by
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
The ''Ukrainische Hilfspolizei'' or the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police ( ua, Українська допоміжна поліція, Ukrains'ka dopomizhna politsiia) was the official title of the local police formation (a type of hilfspolizei) set up b ...
and German policemen in preparation for the ghetto liquidation action. The Jews fought back in an uprising which may have lasted as long as two days. About half the residents were able to flee or hide during the confusion before the uprising was put down. On October 14, the inmates of the ghetto set many of the houses on fire; as a result, while many succeeded in escaping, about 200 people died in the flames inside the ghetto. On 14th and 15th October the captured survivors were transported in lorries to a secluded ravine and shot.
[Shmuel Spector, quoting the memoirs of Peretz Goldstein, ''The Jews of Volhynia and Their Reaction to Extermination''.]
Photographs
![Jewish women and children are ordered to undress prior to their execution outside the Mizocz Ghetto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Jewish_women_and_children_are_ordered_to_undress_prior_to_their_execution_outside_the_Mizocz_Ghetto.jpg)
The shootings were photographed.
[The ]USHMM
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hist ...
collections (2012)
Photographs of the Mizocz shootings.
Zst. Photograph No.
#17878.#17877
, #17876, #17879). Retrieved 4 December 2017. The images owned by ''SS-
Unterscharführer
''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation o ...
'' Schäfer until 1945 became part of the
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg (; Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg district with about 88,000 inhabitants. It is ...
investigation (ZSt. II 204 AR 1218/70). They were published, and have become well known. Frequently the photographs are erroneously said to depict other Holocaust shootings.
[
Two of the photographs show the "''Aktion''" in progress. The photographs give clear evidence of the execution practice common during the Holocaust by bullet in ]Reichskommissariat Ukraine
During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...
. The victims were led to the killing place in groups of around five or so individuals, and forced to lie down among the prior victims, to be shot in the back of the neck or head, with a single bullet. Historians have commented upon the brutality shown in the Mizocz mass murder photographs:
The archival description of the entire set of photographs by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...
(USHMM) includes the following statements. Photograph #17876: "According to the Zentrale Stelle in Germany (Zst. II 204 AR 1218/70), these Jews were collected by the German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
Gendarmerie
Wrong info! -->
A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
and Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
Schutzmannschaft
The ''Schutzmannschaft'' or Auxiliary Police ( "protective, or guard units"; plural: ''Schutzmannschaften'', abbreviated as ''Schuma'') was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and ...
during the liquidation of the Mizocz ghetto, which held roughly 1,700 Jews." Photograph #17877: "Naked Jewish women, some of whom are holding infants, wait in a line before their execution by German Sipo and SD with the assistance of Ukrainian auxiliaries." Photograph #17878: "German police officer shoots Jewish women still alive after a mass execution (Zst. II 204 AR 1218/70)."
Photograph #17879: a "German policeman prepares to complete a mass execution by shooting two Jewish children."
Aftermath
Mizocz would later become the site of the OUN-UPA massacre of about 100 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
in late August 1943. Some 60 percent of the homes were set on fire and burned. Among the victims was Ukrainian carpenter Mr Zachmacz and his entire family, murdered along with the Poles because he refused to enter the fray. His eight-year-old son survived hiding with the Poles.
Following World War II, Poland's borders were redrawn and Mizoch was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
. The Jewish community was never restored. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, the town became part of independent Ukraine.[Sylwester Fertacz (2005)]
"Krojenie mapy Polski: Bolesna granica" (Carving of Poland's map).
Magazyn Społeczno-Kulturalny ''Śląsk.'' Retrieved from the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
on 5 June 2016.
Notes
References
Further reading
* Didi-Huberman, Georges, and Lillis, Shane B., ''Images in Spite of All: Four photographs from Auschwitz'', Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008
* Struk, Janina, ''Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the evidence'', London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2004
* Spector, Shmuel, ''The Jews of Volhynia and Their Reaction to Extermination,'' Published in Yad Vashem Studies 15 (1983)
* Desbois, Patrick, ''The Holocaust by Bullets,'' New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008
External links
*
Mizocz
Mizocz Ghetto
an
Sugar Refinery in Mizocz
at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizocz Ghetto
The Holocaust in Ukraine
Einsatzgruppen
Jewish resistance during the Holocaust
Holocaust historiography
Eastern Front (World War II)
Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe
Holocaust locations in Ukraine