Dates 27 Aug 1942 – 28 Aug 1942 | Location Sarny, Ukraine | |
The Sarny Massacre was the execution of between 14,000 and 18,000 persons, mostly Jews, in the Nazi-occupied city of Sarny, then part of Poland, on August 27 and 28, 1942.
Contents
Before The Massacre
The city of Sarny, situated near the border between Poland and Ukraine and then part of Poland, was captured by Nazi Germany on July 8, 1941, following the German attack on Russia on June 22, 1941. At the time, Sarny had a Jewish population of between 5,000 and 7,000 persons. Russian forces, who had occupied the city following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, retreated. Ukrainian nationalists did not retreat with the Russian forces, but instead saw an opportunity to support the independence of Ukraine through alliances with the Nazis.
Shortly following the German occupation of Sarny, the Nazis pemitted Ukrainians to loot Jewish assets, over a three day period. The Nazis also commandeered Jews as forced labour. Subsequent to the permitted looting by Ukrainians, the Jews of Sarny were forced to turn over most assets to the Nazis, with orders largely enforced by the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, a volunteer organization established by the Nazis.
Between April 2-4 of 1942, a ghetto was established in Sarny, into which were forced the Jews from Sarny and the surrounding towns. Approximately 6,000 Jews were forced into the ghetto at that time
In August, 1942 the Jews in the Sarny ghetto were moved to the Poleska camp in Sarny. This camp already contained an estimated 15,000 Jews who had been forced there from various points in northeast Volhynia. The name "Poleska" referred to an area in Sarny of predominantly Polish settlement, with such settlement having been encouraged by the Polish government, subsequent to its occupation of the city in 1921.
Later in August, 1942, immediately prior to the massacre, more Jews from surrounding towns were forcibly moved to Sarny. One such town was Berezhnitza, also known as Bereznica, then a predominantly Jewish town of approximately 1,400 people, located approximately fifteen miles northwest of Sarny. On August 26,1942, the remaining Jews in Berezhnitza, numbering approximately 1,000, were marched to Sarny, with approximately half being murdered during the journey. Similarly, on August 26, 1942, the entire Jewish population of the nearby town of Rokitno was ordered into the market square, where persons were systematically shot or herded into waiting rail cars, destined for Sarny. Jews were also forcibly transferred to Sarny from the towns of Tomashgorod, Klesov and Dubrovitsa.
The Massacre
The Sarny Massacre occurred over two days, on August 27-28, 1942. During this time it is estimated that between 14,000 and 18,000 people, mostly Jews from Sarny and surrounding towns, including an estimated 100 Roma, were systematically executed in the ravines on the outskirts of the town, where pits had been prepared. The executions were carried out by German troops and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, assisted by some 200 members of Organization Todt. Those who escaped the massacre did so by escaping to the nearby forests, motivated to escape after some of the prisoners set fire to huts in the camp and urged people to flee. Thousands attempted to escape, with many being murdered on the streets of Sarny, or otherwise during the course of attempted flight.
Aftermath
As of 1945, approximately 100 persons were identified as Holocaust survivors from Sarny. It is unclear how many of these survivors had escaped the massacre on August 27-28, 1942. The remnants of the Sarny community fenced in the local Jewish cemetery and restored the tombstones that had previously been used as pavement stones. The cemetery subsequently was destroyed through the construction of a football stadium over it.
Three memorials commemorating those killed in the Sarny Massacre, made of three mountains of bones covered with sand, have been erected at the site of the Sarny Massacre. A memorial to those killed has also been erected in Holon Cemetery, Israel. A memorial book of the history of the Jewish community in Sarny was published in 1961, containing first person accounts by community survivors.