Ghetto of Chortkiv

The ghetto Chortkiv was a ghetto established by the Nazis in Ukraine in 1942, after the German invasion during World War II , to concentrate the population Jewish .

History

The Jewish community of Chortkiv dates back at least to the 17th century , being the oldest record of Hebrew presence in the citadel of 1616. ¹ Until 1939 the city was part of the Second Polish Republic , being occupied by the Red Army on 17 Of September of 1939, happening to comprise of Ukraine. In the early 1930s Chortkiv had 31,000 inhabitants, of whom 46.4% of Poles ( Catholics ), 30% of Jews and 22.8% were Ukrainians ( Orthodox ).

The Soviet occupation was received with relief by the Jewish population, which escaped falling into the hands of the Nazis. However, in June 1941 the forces Nazis occupied the city, with few Jews who seized the opportunity to escape by the Red Army, even though the Soviet authorities did their best to allow the escape of the population. ¹

With the Nazi occupation began the violent persecution of the Jewish population, by the own Ukrainian population, that had been object of an anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic campaign fed by German agents and Ukrainian spies. The first actions consisted in looting property and killing entire Jewish families, perpetrated by Ukrainian peasants against their neighbors. At first, the most brutal attacks against the Jews were carried out by the Ukrainian police organized by the Nazis, carrying out mass murders. In the first few weeks about a hundred Jews had been killed.

Shortly after the Germans organized a Judenrat in Czortkow , made up of 12 people, including Israel Langerman, Bertsie Steiger, Feivish Lebhard and Israel Mordechai Treiner. It served as a channel of communication between the occupying forces and the Jewish community, forming a Jewish police and often collaborating in the delivery of forced labor to the Nazis.

In early 1942 , as part of the ” final solution to the Jewish problem “, the Nazis created a ghetto to confine the Jewish population of the city and the surrounding area between Rzeznicka, Składowa, Targowa, Lazienna, Podolska and Szkolna. In order to better organize the subsequent deportation to concentration camps and extermination.

On August 26, 1942, two thousand Jews from the ghetto Chortkiv were deported to the death camp of Belzec by Schutzpolizei German, while another five hundred, sick or too young, were killed in the same place. In 1944 , the Red Army liberated the village town.