TRUCHENBROD - LOZISHT
In Jewish sources T"L (Tal) Communities
Two small towns adjacent to each other in the district of Luck in the
Ukraine. Between the two World Wars in the Wohlin province of Poland.
Within the boundaries of Poland, Truchenbrod was known as Zofjowka, and Lozisht as Ignatowka. The townlets are located about 45 kms west of Rovno and about 30 kms east of Luck. In the 1830s in the Russian Pale of settlement, during the reign of Czar Nikolai I, the two Jewish communities, known then as Truchenbrod and Lozisht, established a joint community. Zofjowka (or Truchenbrod) was founded in 1835, when Jews from Bielorussia and Wohlin settled on 7,000 dunams of agricultural land which they had acquired from a noble family. In 1865, at their request, they were granted urban status, and the place, at that time Truchenbrod, became a townlet. In 1889, 1,200 Jews were living there.
At first the Jewish residents earned their livelihood in agriculture,
and also by working as tanners, petty traders and craftsmen. At the beginning
of the twentieth century, a glass factory was erected, leading to the economic
flowering of the town and its environs.
In 1914 following the outbreak of World War I, the economic situation declined. Young men were recruited into the army, and the financial assistance that some of the town's families had been receiving from the United States ceased to arrive. In the fall of 1915 the frontline drew near to the town. Cossacks who served in the Russian army and local Ukranian gangs attacked the Jews. Plundering their possessions: hunger and want prevailed. The Jewish residents organized to defend themselves, and in the meantime, the area was conquered by the Austrians. In spite of the strict regulations of the Austrian occupation authorities regarding the maintenance of decent sanitary conditions, a typhus epidemic broke out, in which many Jews of Truchenbrod perished. Jewish men between the ages of 15 and 60 were taken for forced labor. An Austrian priest and several army officers opened a local school to teach the children German. About nine months later the Austrians retreated, and the Russians returned. During the 1917 revolution, the Jews did not suffer casualties, thanks to their organized self-defense. At the end of World War I, Zofjowka and Ignatowka were included in the area of independent Poland.
The town boasted seven synagogues, four of them belonging to the Hasidim. The first rabbi to serve there was Rabbi Itzi [?] Weisman. When rabbi Baruch Zeev Beigel took over the position in 1910, the Berezina Hasidim chose their own rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Beider Perlmutter, who died in the epidemic of 1916. Rabbi Gershon Weisman served after him, alongside of Rabbi Beigel, until both perished in the Holocaust.
A modern Heder (religious elementary school) was established in the town in 1910, and classes were held where adults could learn to write Yiddish and Russian. In 1912, a Hebrew school was opened which taught the Russian language as well as religious subjects. This school was closed in 1914.
In 1922, a Hebrew school of the "Tarbut" network was opened in Zofjowka, with an affiliated kindergarten: it remained in operation for four years. Later, a Polish state school was started: most of its teachers and students were Jews. Religious studies were taught privately. For a short time, a Yeshiva (Talmudic college) also functioned in Zofjowka.
In 1921, 1,531 Jews and 18 non-Jews were living in Zofjowka. Its economy was quickly revitalized in independent Poland following World War I. The tanneries introduced machinery to facilitate their work, and ten dairies, comprising approximately 500 cows, marked their milk and milk products in the surrounding towns. In the wake of the economic crisis of the thirties and the Polish government's support of the Polish cooperatives, once again the livelihood of the Jews was adversely affected.
Zionist activity began in the town even before World War I, when in 1908 the "Zionist Society" was founded. After the war, branches of all the Zionist movements and of most of the youth movements started functioning there, the most active ones being "Hechalutz" and "Beitar". Local training facilities were set up, and prior to 1939 forty-five families, most of them farmers, had emigrated to Eretz Israel. In the fall of 1938 the first course in Poland for "Etzel"commanders was held in Zofjowka. In 1934, a branch of the "Zionist youth" was formed. There was also a clandestine Communist group.
Ignatowka, which is Løzisht, was founded in 1838 as a Jewish agricultural colony. In 1897 it had 567 Jews on 2,800 dunams of land. Their number increased, and at the beginning of the twentieth century reached 1,204.
During World War I (1914-1918), Ignatowka was damaged, and all of the Jews left (most of them to Barom Hirsch's colonies in Argentina). Following the war, the damaged farmsteads were renovated with the assistance of the "joint distribution committee" and of "[?]rt", whose representative for the entire district was situated in the town.
The Jews made their living mainly from dairy farming: milk products were marked in the big cities. The town also had a large flour mill and tanning workshops. Between the two world wars, Ignatowka was an independent community. Two rabbis officiated there: Rabbi Zalman Schuster and Rabbi Shimon Goldstein. In the twenties there were two synagogues. Almost all the Jews there were Hasidim.
Between the two world wars, Zionist activity was concentrated in neighboring Zofjowka, where there was a kindergarten, a Hebrew school, a library and branches of the Zionist movements. Most of the youth of Ignatowka belonged to the "Beitar" youth movement, which opened a branch there in 1932. "Beitar" and "Hechalutz" groups from all over Poland came to Ignatowka for agricultural training.
In the twenties, several Jews emigrated to Eretz Israel.
In 19221, there were 577 Jews in the town.
On the eve of World War II, approximately 2,300 Jews resided in Zofjowka
and 900 in Ignatowka.
The Holocaust Period
Upon the outbreak of World War II (1 September 1939) and following the pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the eastern sections of Poland, including Wohlin, were transferred to Soviet jurisdiction. With the arrival of the Soviets, a group of 20 youth, members of Zionist youth movements, mainly "Beitar", crossed the border to Vilna. In 1941 they succeeded in reaching Eretz Israel, where most of them joined the "Lehi" movement. During Soviet rule, Jewish refugees from occupied Poland settled in Zofjowka and the number of its residents rose to 3,500. At the same time, the number of Jews in Ignatowka rose to 1,200.
On 22 June 1941, the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. Zofjowka and Ignaowka were conquered at the end of June. The Germans appointed an Ukrainian administration for the area and established an auxiliary police (Schotsmen) of Ukrainians. During the first days of the occupation, Jews were murdered and Jewish possessions destroyed and plundered by rioting Ukrainian villagers. Once again Jewish self-defense was organized.
At the beginning of July, the Germans appointed a Judenrat (Jewish [?] council subject to the authorities), and the Jews were required to do forced labor in agriculture and in local [?]es that now served the Germans. [?]50 Jews from Zofjowka were [?] at the railroad station in the town of [?] where they were subjected to brutality at the hands of their German and Ukrainian guards. In the fall of 1941, the agricultural farmsteads of the Jews were confiscated, as were their furs, other warm clothing and objects of value. The Jews were also commanded to pay hundreds of rubles in ransom money.
Dr. Klinger, a Jew who posed as "Folksdeutsch" (a German native of the town) made contact with the German leadership and arranged for the employment of Jews in the production of leather bags and boots for the Germans. The work was done in town and kept them from being sent to do forced labor. The identity of Dr. Klinger was revealed and he was murdered by Ukrainian police, on 25 July 1942. The Jews of Ignatowka were transferred to Zofjowka, where the Jews of Zofjowka and the vicinity were concentrated in the center of the town. Those whose skills were in demand were moved with their families to the nearby area of Selishche. Rumors spread that the Germans were planning to slaughter the Jews still remaining in Zofjowka. Those who attempted to flee to the forests were shot by Ukrainian policemen who patrolled the town for that purpose. On July 27th the final "Aktion" (liquidation action) was carried out. The Schotsmen brought trucks to the town, tossed the children into them, and in their wake, marched the adults to the forest across to pits that had been dug near the village of Yaromla. There the Jews were murdered by shooting and buried in mass graves.
In the second "Aktion," which took place on the Day of Atonement, 2 September 1942, the Jews living in Selishche and those who returned from the forest for the holy day prayers were also slaughtered, while digging the pits. Some of the Jews attacked their German and Ukrainian guards with the shovels they held. During the ensuing struggle, some Jews managed to escape to the forest.
In town there remained only a few dozen Jews, from among those who prepared leather products for the Germans. In the third "Aktion" which took place in December 1942, the too were slain. Ten Jews, who served the Germans as labor foremen and remained alive a little while longer, were imprisoned in the synagogue in Zofjowka and died when the synagogue was set to fire. The town was declared "Judenrein" (cleansed of Jews).
Even before the "Aktions" Jewish youth organized to resist and began collecting weapons. In September 1942 they set up [?] in the nearby forest, and were aided by Ukrainian Communists. They were joined by Jews who escaped during the "Aktions," and made contact with Soviet partisans. In [?] the Jews [ ? ?] Wohlin, and [ ? ? ? ¨Jewish partisans who came from Zofjowka also [?] partisan units which operated in that area.
In February 1944, Zofjowka and Ignatowka were liberated by the Red Army. The Jews did not return there; their possessions had been plundered and their houses demolished by the Ukrainians.
In August 1992 monuments were raised on the spot in memory of the Jewish
communities of T"L who had been murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen.
The monuments were erected by a delegation from Israel composed of former
members of these communities. In the area where in the past the two townlets
stood, there they found fields of wheat and corn. Of the towns there was
no trace.