Destruction of Jaryczow:
Memorial Book to the Martyrs of Jarczow and Surroundings

(Novyy Yarychiv, Ukraine)

49°55' / 24°18'

Translation of
Khurbn Jaryczow bay Lemberg;
sefer zikaron le-kesoshei Jaryczow y-sevivoteha

Edited by: Mordekhai Gerstl

Published in New York, 1948




Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Errol Schneegurt



Translations

 
William Leibner [1]
Errol Schneegurt [2]
Elaine Sacks Schneegurt
 
 

Verified by
 
Harry and Regina Roschwalb
 

This is a translation from: Khurbn Jaryczow bay Lemberg; sefer zikaron le-kesoshei Jaryczow y-sevivoteha ;
Destruction of Jaryczow; memorial book to the martyrs of Jarczow and surroundings;
ed. Mordekhai Gerstl, New York: A. Baum, 1948, Yiddish.


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THE DESTRUCTION OF YARYCHEV
(NOVVY- YARYCHEV, JARYCHOW, JARYCZOW)
BOOK OF MEMORY

"THE MARTYRED ONES OF YARYCHEV AND OTHER AREAS"

"A short description from the World War Two from the living and destruction from other shtetls in Poland. With the names from the martyred ones. All accurate with true facts."

Written by Dr. Harv Mordechai Gerstl

Reviewed by Rabbi Avrhm (Avrhmtshe) Baum

1948

The officers of the Yartchev Relief Society are:

Abraham Baum, Chairman
Kalman (Charlie) Shehr, Treasurer
Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Gerstel
Zeev (William) Taube
Haim Eleazar (Haymi) Sirop
Leizer (Louis) Lacher
Izi Stoltsberg
Abraham Klap
Jacob Zimmerman
Harry Zimmerman
Henry Altman
Ahron Morer

Officers of the Yartchev Society:
Zeev (William) Taube, Past President
Leizer (Louis) Lacher, President
Emanuel Einhorn, Vice-President
Abraham Baum, Recording Secretary and hospital liaison
Izi Stoltsberg, Financial Secretary
Kalman (Charlie) Shehr, Treasurer
Izi Frostak, Sergeant at Arms
Photograph of Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Gerstel, son of Rabbi Meir Gerstel, grandson of Rabbi Shmuel Gerstel, who was the head of the Jewish Judicial Council of Yartchev.

Photograph of Abraham (Abramtche) Baum. He devoted his free time and his energy to help the survivors of the town. He united them with their families in the United States. Thanks to his efforts the yizkor book was assembled and printed. The erection of the monument for the Yartchev martyrs is also due in great part to his efforts. He truly devoted himself to the activities of the landsmanshaft . May G-d reward him.


Introduction

Yartchev, the saintly pious little town, no longer exists. A town whose pious Jews constantly repented, each hour, each instant. They repented all of the time, minute-by-minute and second-by-second. Yartchev, like other Jewish towns in Poland, Russia, Galicia, Lithuania, and Latvia, was destroyed in the tragic destruction of European Jewry. Among the six million murdered Jews we find our brothers and sisters from Yartchev and all of the surrounding areas.

The entire German nation—young and old, professors, doctors, and simple Germans—prided itself as a nation of poets and thinkers. In reality, however, the Germans distinguished themselves as a nation of murderers. They joined hands with Polish and Ukrainian murderers and attacked our defenseless brothers and sisters. They did not spare the old, the sick, the children or the pregnant women. They tortured, starved, burned and gassed the Jews. German doctors severed limbs from living Jews and let them bleed to death. The pain and agony of the dying was recorded with great precision. They calculated the length of time needed to die or to asphyxiate a Jew. They removed the eyes of Jews, as was done to the daughter-in-law of the rabbi of Yartchev. They incited their hungry dogs to attack Jews. The Germans converted Jewish bodies into soap, and the skins of Jewish infants were transformed into lampshades or pocketbooks. Thus did the wild beasts exhaust, torture, and kill six million Jews. Dear brothers and sisters, amongst them were the Jews of Yartchev and the nearby areas. More than 5,000 Jews were killed in Yartchev, for the town had a ghetto and all the Jews in the area had to move into it. No Jew was permitted to live outside the ghetto. It contained Jews from the following hamlets: Old Yartchev, Kamionka, Stromilowa, Gline, and Premishlan. All the Jews from the following villages were forced to move to the Ghetto: Podlusik, Winiek-Zoltaniec, Zadworsche, Idalev, Hereniv, Tzefiriv, Kokiziv Ridianeff and Borshtziviec. Of course the Jews of Yartchev itself were also moved to the ghetto.

The Jews lived in the ghetto from 1941 until 1943. Then the final actions took place on the 15th and 16th of January 1943, the ninth and tenth day of the month of Shvat, Tashag, on the Friday and Saturday when the Torah portion of "Ba" is read. With these actions, the Jewish communities ceased to exist. The area became free of Jews. I am shedding tears for all those martyred people who were slaughtered and killed. I hope G-d will avenge the blood that was shed and destroy the perpetrators of these evil deeds and extend His divine protection over the remnants of the people of Israel and lead them to Salvation.


Yartchev
10
Memorial Day (Yartzeit)
14
Hoshana of the Berditchever Rabbi
23
Eve of World War II
25
World War II and the Destruction
28
War with Russia
29
Destruction of Yartchev
30
Yizkor
43
Prayers before Yizkor
45
Names of Victims of Yartchev
48
Names of Victims of Vinniki & Ydalev
70
Names of Victims of Borshtzewice
72
Names of Victims of Podlusik
72
Names of Victims of Fidbaritz & Kikizov
73
Names of Victims of Alt Yartchev
74
Names of Victims of Pekalowitch & Kamenfale
74
Names of Survivors
76
 
Supplementary Material  
List of Jews of Nowy Jarczow and Vicinity that Perished in the Holocaust
List of Jews of Nowy Jarczow and Vicinity that Survived



TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:

1) The portion of the memorial book that I have translated is the list of victims and their families and those that were fortunate enough to survive the war. The Yiddish in the book is phonetic in nature and you will find that there are several spellings for the same name. This occurs most often with given names. I also wish to point out that the information seems to have been collected by households and the names may not always be in true Hebrew alphabetical order. I attempted to translate this portion of the memorial book, as closely as possible to the way it was written by the author. The names are listed in order by surname, first name and middle name.


IN MEMORY OF MY BOBE AND ZEYDE

SARAH (SADIE) BRATER ISAAC

AND

WILHELM (VOLF) ISAAC

TWO SAINTLY PEOPLE

AND

TO THE FAMILY I WAS NOT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO KNOW

Errol Schneegurt


2) I am not an historian, a translator, or a writer, yet I felt the need to contribute to the memory of the Jews who were killed in Yartchev and in the surrounding areas. All traces of Jews and Jewish life were obliterated to the point that someone visiting the area today would not even notice a Jewish shadow. Yet, Jews lived in Nowy Jarczow (Polish name of town) or Novyy Yarychev (Ukrainian name of town) since about 1577. They even had a name for the town, Jaritchiv (Yartchev) pronounced Jartchev.

Generations of Jews lived, created, and vanished. There is no monument for them, no memorial plaque, no library corner, and no tombstone. The little information that is available is written mostly in Yiddish, which—unfortunately—few Jews speak or read today. I therefore attempted to open a small window on Yartchev and the surrounding areas by translating the Yiddish yizkor book into English. Please excuse the errors and omissions that were made in translating the book. We wanted to memorialize the Jews of Yartchev and vicinity, most of who disappeared without a trace—entire families gone without a survivor, their names neither known nor recorded. Now all the Jews of the vicinity are memorialized, especially the members of my wife's family, the Altmans, Mandels and Lowenkrowns, who lived in the area for generations and died without a trace.

May their memory be eternal!


Nowy Jarczow

The village of Nowy Jarczow was founded in 1451 by Polish nobility. It was incorporated as a city in 1563. The Tartars invaded the city twice (1578 and 1695) and practically devastated it. The first Jews appeared in 1577 and suffered at the hands of the Tartars. In 1628, the city records state that there were no taxpaying Jews in the city. The Jewish community began to grow with the final defeat of the Tartars. The Jews developed the ornamental belt industry that gave Nowy Jarczow its reputation. The Jews also introduced the weaving industry in town. The great fire of 1872 left 2,000 Jews without a roof [over their heads]. Almost the entire city burned down, especially the Jewish section. The city slowly rebuilt itself when World War I came along. Russian forces looted and burned the Jewish homes. Due to crowded living conditions and poor sanitary facilities, diseases ravaged the Jewish population. The Ukrainian provisional government did everything in its power to harass and persecute the Jewish population, which declined by 40% compared to the year prior to the war. Most of the Jews left for Lemberg and other large cities in the Austrian Empire or for America. The Polish authorities restored some semblance of peace and tranquility, but the city never regained its former economic status. Most of the Jews who left the town during or immediately after the war never returned to Nowy Jarczow.

The Jews dealt primarily in small trade and crafts, not in any industry to speak of. There were six Jewish farmers in Nowy Jarczow. The city was poor and offered few opportunities to the younger generation, desperate to leave. The Jews of Nowy Jarczow were very pious; most were followers of the Belzer Rabbi. The official rabbi of the town was Rabbi Pinhas Zhitomor, but there were several other rabbis in town.

The city continued to stagnate economically until World War II. First the Russians and then the Germans occupied the city. The Germans forced the Jews of Nowy Jarczow and the surrounding hamlets and villages to enter the ghetto. On January 15th, 1943 all the Jews, some 2,300-2,500, were driven out of the ghetto and shot. Their bodies were dumped into prepared ditches. Then the Germans and the Ukrainians began massive hunts for surviving Jews in the countryside. Few Jews survived this police dragnet. In effect, Nowy Jarczow and the vicinity became Judenreinas of January 1943.


DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE ALTMAN AND BIENSTOCK FAMILIES

FROM THIS AREA OF THE UKRAINE

William Leibner
Jerusalem, 8 February 2000


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