Vishnevets, on the Horyn River, was the princely seat of the Wiśniowiecki family. At the end of the 14th century, New Vishnevets was founded across the river from the old town, and the two towns joined with a bridge. In the 17th century, an established Jewish community existed in Vishnevets.  Although it was repeatedly destroyed—by Tatars, Turks, and Cossacks—by 1897, Jews numbered 2,980 out of a population of 4,196. Most Jews lived in the new town, working as merchants, grocers, and craftsmen such as tailors, cobblers, milliners, and carpenters. In the 1920s and 30s, while part of independent Poland, the Jewish community supported seven synagogues, a library, an orphanage, several schools, both religious and secular, Zionist youth groups, and even a training kibbutz. In 1941, the Nazis occupied the area. On August 11–12, 1942, German troops and Ukrainian Auxiliary Police murdered nearly 2,700 Jewish men, women and children. Vishnevets became the area’s ghetto, where ultimately 6,000 died. This book is a tribute to that lost Jewish community and its people.

Let us never forget.