Manevychi (Manevichi, Maniewicze) | Volyn

Manevychi is a village, located about 78 km of Lutsk. The first records of the Jewish community date back to the 20^th century. In 1921, 462 Jews here, comprising more than the half of the total population. The majority of Jews were merchants or artisans. Many lived from timber business. There were several sawmills and a parquet factory. Between the two wars the village was under the Polish rule and in 1939 it was annexed by the Soviet Union as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Under the Polish ruled Zionist organization, Tarbut kindergarten and elementary school operated in the village. In 1939-1941 Jewish refugees arrived to the village and the Jewish population increased up to 2,000. The Germans units occupied the village on June 28^th, 1941.

Immediately after the occupation, a Jewish council (Judenrat) and a local Ukrainian police were created. The first execution was conducted on August 25^th, 1941, when 327 Jewish men were taken, under the pretext of being transferred to a labor camp, outside the village and shot in the forest, at the place called “Horse graves.” All the Jews were marked first with stars and after with yellow distinguishing badges, but they continued to live in their houses until spring 1942, when an opened ghetto was created. While being confined in the ghetto the Jews, men and women, were force to perform different kind of labor, such as working at the parquet flooring factory, cleaning the streets, or repairing the railroads. Many Jews managed to flee from the place they worked and managed to join the partisans. Several days before the second aktion, carried out on September 2^nd, 1942, all the Jews, including 300 Jews from nearing village of Troyanivka, were displaced to enclosed ghetto. During the execution all Jews from the ghetto were taken to the same execution site, located in the forest, where they were shot in four pits dug in advance.  Prior to the shooting they had to undress completely. In all, according to the historical sources 1,840 Jews were shot on this day. Both aktions were conducted by German unit that were assisted by local police.  During the Yahad research mission, we found out that there was another shooting close to the village of Cherevakha. According to the witness, they were Jews from Troyanivka who were shot there. We believe that part of the Troyanivka Jews was shot along with the Manevychi Jews in the forest, outside of Manevychi, close to the road leading to Cherevakha, and another part was taken further and shot behind Cherevakha. 

For more information about the execution of Jews in Cherevakha, please, refer to the corresponding profile. 

Go to the Townpage on JewishGen Ukraine SIG website