Vowchyn Ghetto (Summer 1941 - September 1942) was a Nazi Jewish ghetto established during the Nazi occupation of Belarus in World War II. It was a site of forced resettlement for Jews from Vowchyn in the Kamenets district of the Brest region and surrounding areas, during the persecution and extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany.
Occupation of Vowchyn and the creation of the ghetto.
According to the 1939 census, 402 Jews resided in the village of Vowchyn. Shortly after German troops occupied Vowchyn, more than 100 Jews were deported to the ghetto in Vysokoye, where they were murdered alongside the local Jewish population on November 2, 1942.
The village did not host a German garrison; instead, the occupation was administered by local collaborators, including the head of the German administration, local policemen, and Igor Kudin-Kirikovich, the son of the local priest, who served as the village headman (soltys). The former synagogue was repurposed as a warehouse by the Germans. Approximately two months after the occupation began, the Nazis established a ghetto in Vowchyn, confining the local Jewish population as part of their broader program of extermination.
Conditions in the ghetto.
The ghetto was enclosed with barbed wire but was lightly guarded. Jews were able to leave the ghetto to barter for food.
Destruction of the ghetto.
In late October 1942 (or September according to some sources), the remaining Jews of Vowchyn, numbering over 40, were killed alongside 350 Jews from the ghetto in Chernavchitsy on the northern outskirts of the village, near the forest by New Vowchyn. Deceived into believing they were being relocated to another ghetto, the Jews—comprising mostly the elderly and children—marched to the execution site carrying their belongings. The victims were stripped and shot, their bodies piled into pits which were then lightly covered with sand.
Cases of rescue.
There is a known case of rescue involving a local policeman named Marian Kozhenevsky, who saved Esther Mindler, a Jewish girl around 9-10 years old. He smuggled her out of the ghetto the day before the execution, but her subsequent fate is unknown.
Memory.
From the summer of 1941 until its destruction in 1942, the Vowchyn ghetto saw the murder of 395 (or 350) Jews from Vowchyn and Chernavchitsy during several "actions," (used by the Nazis for mass murder). Additionally, the old Jewish cemetery in Dichka pasture holds the remains of approximately 700 Jews, including those from nearby villages and towns who were brought to Vowchyn and executed.
In 1965, a concrete obelisk was erected at the mass grave, inscribed with the words: "Here in 1942, 395 Jews—residents of the villages of Vowchyn and Chernavchitsy—were shot. Shame on the bloody executioners and German fascists."