Zarvantsi | Vinnytsia

Zarvantsi is located about 10 km west of Vinnytsia. The local Jewish community was very small. According to the witness only several Jewish families lived in Zarvantsi.  The local community didn’t have a synagogue neither a cemetery. The majority of Jews lived in Vinnytsia. The first record of a Jewish presence dates to the early 16th century. In the mid-17th century, several dozen Jewish families lived in Vinnytsia. In 1847 there were 3,882 Jews in Vinnytsia and by 1897 11, 689 Jews lived in the city making up almost 40% of the total population. On the eve of the war, 36% of the city’s population was Jewish. By the time Vinnytsia was occupied more than half of the Jewish inhabitants had managed to evacuate.g

The area was occupied by the Germans on July 19, 1941. At this time, according to the Martin Dean Encyclopedia, approximately 18,000 Jews remained in the city of Vinnytsia. Until October 1941 Vinnytsia remained under German military administration. On October 20, 1941, it became part of Generalkommissariat Shitomir. One of the first measures undertaken by the military administration was to register all Jews and mark them with armbands bearing the Star of David. There is no exact information of what had happened to the local Jews. Most probably those who didn’t evacuate were displaced to the Vinnytsia ghetto. There was a labor camp created in Zarvantsi in May 1942. About 440 Jews, mainly women, were brought there from Vinnytsia. They stayed in the camp created in the school building for several months. The camp was fenced in with barbed wire and was guarded by German police. The camp was liquidated in November 1942 when all the detainees were taken to the pit dug in the forest by the Soviet prisoners of war. The Jews were brought from the camp by 30-35 policemen with dogs. The victims were shot dressed. At the end the pit was filled in by the Soviet prisoners of war.

For more information about the killings of Vinnytsia Jews please refer to the corresponding profile