ZBARAZH

ZBARAZH (Pol. Zbaraż), town in W. Ukraine (formerly in E. Galicia). Jews were living there at the end of the 15th century. The cemetery dates from 1510. According to a document of 1593 the city and its entire revenues were leased to Jews and Christians jointly. The Jewish community expanded in the 17th century and a synagogue was erected. The siege on Zbarazh by chmielnicki in 1649, its capture by the Turks in 1676, and the haidamak raids of 1708 caused terrible suffering to the community. There were 910 Jewish inhabitants in 1765. The number increased under Austrian rule after 1772, reaching 2,896 (35% of the total population) in 1900. The 1931 census records 3,000 Jewish residents. Two followers of Judah he-Ḥasid originating from here were Isaiah of Zbarazh and his son. Zbarazh was also the birthplace of the folk poet B.Z. Ehrenkranz . (Max Wurmbrand) -Holocaust Period During World War II the Jewish population reached 5,000 with the arrival of refugees from western Poland. After the German occupation, the Jewish survivors from Skalat, Grzymalow, and Podwoloczyska were brought into Zbarazh. On July 4, 1941, a pogrom was carried out and the first Jews were killed. On Sept. 6, 1941, the Jewish intellectuals were ordered to present themselves before the Nazis; 70 persons were murdered in the Lubieniecki forest. In the spring of 1942 some 600 sick and aged persons were marched off toward Tarnopol and murdered on the way. Other Jews were deported to the labor camps of kamenka-bugskaya and Zborow. On Aug. 31–Sept. 1, 1942, an Aktion took place and hundreds of persons were deported to the belzec extermination camp. Hermann Mueller, head of the Gestapo at Tarnopol, directed the murder of the Jews of Zbarazh. On Oct. 20–22, 1942, 1,000 Jews were deported to Belzec and Lvov Janowska camp. On Nov. 8–9, 1942, a group of more than 1,000 Jews was deported to Belzec. On April 7, 1943, hundreds of Jews were put to death near the city. The ghetto established in the autumn of 1942 was demolished on June 8, 1943. Some Jews hid in the Polish village of Kretowce. Some 60 Jews from the city survived the Holocaust. (Aharon Weiss)