Antopal Ghetto

The Antopal Ghetto (spring 1942 – 15 October 1942) was a Jewish ghetto, a place of forced resettlement of Jews from the urban-type settlement of Antopal in Drahichyn district, Brest Region, during the persecution and extermination of Jews under the German occupation of Belarusian territory by Nazi Germany during World War II.

According to the 1940 census, Jews made up about half of Antopal's residents roughly 1,500 people.^[1] Altogether, in Antopal and nearby villages, including refugees from Poland, there were about 2,600 Jews at the start of the war.^[2]

The settlement was under German occupation for over three years from 25 June 1941 to 16 July 1944. Immediately after capturing the town, the Germans began implementing the Nazi policy of the "Final Solution" by repressing the Jewish population two were killed on the spot, while the rest were constantly beaten and humiliated.^[3]

By the end of July 1941, the Nazis forced the Jews to organize a Judenrat.^[4] Under threat of death, all Jews were required to sew yellow patches in the shape of the Star of David onto their clothing, and to leave their homes and relocate to the right side of Pinskaya Street.^[3] Jews from Shereshevo were also brought into this ghetto.^[5]

The Germans viewed Jews as the main threat to occupation authorities and feared Jewish resistance. For this reason, they prioritized killing Jewish men aged 15–50, despite losing their most able-bodied workers. Archival documents report that in the second half of 1941, "almost all young Jews of both sexes" were killed in Antopal.^[6]

In October 1941, the Nazis ordered Jews, under threat of execution, to surrender gold and currency. At the same time, local residents were forced to dig an execution ditch near the village of Prishikhvosty. The next day, a column of German trucks arrived; Jewish men seized the previous day were loaded and taken away supposedly for forced labor, but in reality they were taken to the "Khvoyniki" area and murdered. Under the pretext of "concealing valuables," about 140 Jewish boys and men, including teenagers from age 14, were killed. The mothers and wives of those already murdered were "permitted" to collect packages for their relatives, after which the Germans appropriated everything collected by the starving, deceived people.^[3]

Ghettos were established in almost all towns and settlements in Belarus with Jewish populations. Thus, in spring 1942, more than 2,500 Jews from Antopal and nearby villages were herded into two ghettos "A" and "B".^[4] Jews with professions needed by the Germans were placed in ghetto "A"; the elderly and sick in ghetto "B".^[3] Both ghettos were enclosed by a common 2.5-meter-high wooden fence topped with barbed wire; movement between the ghettos or leaving the territory was forbidden.^[7]

Prisoners lived in unbearable overcrowding 40–50 people per house.^[4]

Periodically, Germans and local police^[8] went through Jewish homes demanding gold, jewelry, and simply good items. Such payments could buy a few more weeks or months of life. If nothing remained to pay with, the entire family was shot.^[7]

In summer 1942, about 1,000 Antopal Jews were taken away and murdered at Bronna Góra.^[3]

In autumn 1942 the ghetto was surrounded, residents driven from their homes, and to intimidate the rabbi was murdered in front of everyone.^[4]

On 15 October 1942 (the ChGK report erroneously states November) the Antopal Ghetto was finally liquidated.^[4] Over several days during the "Aktion" (the euphemism used by the Nazis for organized mass murders), the Nazis and collaborators shot 2,000–2,500 (or up to 4,000^[9]) remaining Jews near Antopal in the Khvoyniki area (at the Pervomaysk cemetery 1 km east of Antopal).^[3][9]

The doomed were brought by truck to pre-dug execution pits. The site was cordoned off by police and gendarmes. Jews were forced to undress, descend into the pit, and lie face down before being machine-gunned.

Germans in rubber boots and gloves descended onto the bodies, packed them tighter, pulled gold teeth, and removed rings. If a ring would not come off, they cut off the finger with it.

After the killing, the mass graves remained open for a long time, and wild animals and birds tore at and scattered the bodies.

Only a few Antopal Jews survived the occupation. One was the physician Pinchas Chernyak, who, together with his wife and child, was smuggled out of Antopal in empty barrels by Vasily Silyuk from Hrushevo village. Later, Chernyak and his wife fought in the partisan detachment named after Kirov.^[3][9]

Vera Maksimovna Okhrits was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for rescuing Pinchas Chernyak's daughter "in recognition of profound gratitude for assistance rendered to the Jewish people during World War II".^[10]

Some names of the perpetrators are preserved, recorded including in ChGK reports: district chief Khrominsky Franz, Kreislandwirt Bachmaier, deputy Kreislandwirt Gamon, investigator Yanina Gartova.

In 1975 a monument was erected in the Khvoyniki area at the burial site of the Antopal Jews murdered during the Holocaust.^[9][11]