Dubrovytsia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dubrovytsia
Дубровиця
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A catholic church in Dubrovytsia
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 Dubrovytsia
Location in Rivne Oblast
Dubrovytsia
Location in Ukraine
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| Country |  Ukraine |
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| Oblast | Rivne Oblast | ||
| Raion | Sarny Raion | ||
| Hromada | Dubrovytsia urban hromada | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 58.7 km2 (22.7 sq mi) | ||
| Population
(2022)
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| • Total | 9,343 | ||
| Postal Code |
34100—34108
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| Area code(s) | +380-3658 | ||
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Dubrovytsia (Ukrainian: Дубровиця; Polish: Dąbrowica; Yiddish: דומברוביצא) is a city in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine. It was the administrative center of Dubrovytsia Raion until the raion was abolished in 2020. It is the site of the now ruined Jewish shtetl of Dombrovitza. Population: 9,343 (2022 estimate).
Among the most notable historical landmarks in the city are a rococo Roman Catholic church founded in 1740 by Kazimierz Pniewski and two Orthodox churches: one founded in 1861 by Ignacy Plater (whose manor until 1917 was located in Worobin, some 3 kilometres north of the city) and the other built in 1872. Until the Holocaust the city also had three synagogues.
Contents
History
Although in modern times part of Rivne Oblast, it was historically not part of Volhynia but rather Land of Brest. It was not until 1805 that it was administratively attached to Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire, along with many other lands formerly belonging to now-partitioned Poland.
In 19th century Dąbrowica was a notable centre of commerce, with a number of factories and manufactures serving the local market. It was also notable for its college run by Piarist monks, established in 1695 by Jan Dolski. Although the Piarist convent was dissolved in 1832 in the aftermath of the November Uprising, the school continued to exist until it was closed by Soviet authorities in 1939, following the joint Soviet and German invasion of Poland. Among its alumni were Cyprian Godebski, Alojzy Feliński and Łukasz Gołębiowski.
During World War I and the two years following it, the town passed hands many times between various powers including the Bolshevik Russian army, the Polish Democratic Republic army, local Militia (Bolokhovists), national Ukrainian forces led by Petliura, the German army and allied Hetman authorities, a local rebel army (which included all four ethnicity groups: Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and Germans) and others.
The town was owned by a Polish noble family, the Pliater brothers, who were murdered by the farmers as part of the communist revolution on November 22, 1918. A younger brother survived, but moved away. The town was declared under communist (Bolshevik) self-rule. The Ukrainian army under Symon Petliura took the town for two days.
In September 1939 the Soviets took over the town, in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
History of the Dubrovytsia Jews
A large Jewish population thrived at the center of town, owning many of the stores and houses there, in what was called the Dombrovitza shtetl. Jews also owned the timber cutting factories, one of the major industries in the area.
World War I and the aftermath
In 1915 with the withdrawal of the Polish army of Nikolai, trains with Jewish refugees and Jewish soldiers reached the town, and the synagogues were used to host many of them. Until 1917 the 83rd division of the Polish Democratic Republic stayed in town, expelling many of the Jews from their homes, and annexing their houses.
During the Russian revolution, the Jews were accused of siding with the communists, against the "white Russians" and the Poles, who claimed national sovereignty.
In March 1918 the remnants of the 83rd division of the now deserted army joined forces with Polish militants and began rampaging and killing Jews in the villages around Dubrovytzia. The Jews of the town organized a self-defense team, and during the gathering of the militia with local farmers for a major planned lynch attack, detonated a large bomb in the town market square. Later the head of the militia was caught and imprisoned by the self-defense team. A German army unit took over the town, although Germany had signed a peace agreement and the war supposedly had ended.
In 1920 Jews were repeatedly harassed and some killed when the town passed hands back and forth between the Russians and Poles, at one time changing hands three times in one day. In October 1920, anti communist Bolkhovist (Polish and Russian) militia attacked the Wiesuzk Jews killing many, but were repelled from Dubrovytsia by the Polish major and his army residing in the town.
In 1937 on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the Polish establishment backed by the police forced the Jews to paint the house fronts and rebuild public parts of the fences within 48 hours. Some of the poorer Jews were beaten.
World War II and the Holocaust
In September 1939, with the Soviet takeover, trainloads of refugees reached the town, and were again accommodated in the Jews homes and the synagogues. Jewish and Christian refugees were fed equally in the town's Jewish learning house.
During the 2nd world war the Jews of Dąbrowica went through a year of horrific events. When the town became part of a German supported Ukrainian self-rule, the Jews were sent to forced labor, working with manure, and cutting wood, while their property and possessions were taken from them. A Judenrat was established and a Ghetto. Decrees were given to give in large amounts of gold, fur, and shoes. The Jews of the town assembled trying to keep up with the demands, in makeshift workshops. Food for the Jews was rationed down to 800 grams of bread per week per person.
Around April 1942 a Ghetto was established in the town for its 4327 Jews. In response to a plea by the Jewish leadership, the Germans allowed for a larger Ghetto than originally planned. The establishment of the Ghetto and response to the plea were seen as a token for German non lethal plans with the Jews. All gold was to be delivered to the Germans, and the punishment for a Jew holding gold was death. The two old rabbis brought in all their gold, laying an example before the rest of the community, in hope that the Germans would not have further claims. Jews from neighboring villages were forced into the Ghetto as well. During the deportation, the neighbors snatched the Jews' belongings and openly told the refugees that they would not abide by property agreements that they had made with them. The main synagogue was closed and public prayers were not allowed.
57 Jewish policemen guarded the Ghetto mostly collaborating with the Germans, and an antagonism developed between the Judenrat (Jewish committee) and the Jewish population.
Evidence has been gathered that psychologists and other experts were sent to the town, to see to it that the Jewish population complies with the German decrees without revolting.
Ghetto liquidation
A notice was put up calling all Jews to assemble on the second day of Shavuot the Jewish holiday of Pentecost at the cemetery. The main synagogue was opened for prayer on the first day of the holiday, and the Jewish speaker for the German rule explained that it is only for a head count. The Jews were sent home.
In the last three months of Ghetto, the Germans put up signs that Jews had poisoned the wells. Christian posters called for the demise of the Jews who were the cause for the fall of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Chmelnitzki and Petliura.
The unit of Ukrainian militia in Dubrowica had participated in the massacre of Jews at Rozhichecz, Kobel and other places.
Partisans and refugees
Seventeen of the Dubrowica Jews who survived the forest reached Israel and testified in a book about their subsequent experience.
Jews who had escaped the town, from the town of Sernik or from the nearby villages, and that were hiding in the forests, were being exposed to the Germans by the local farmers, in return for two kilograms of salt per head.
Ten Jewish survivors organized as a small band in the swamp area nearby. With knives, they were able to force a farmer to hand over a Russian shotgun, and with it they armed themselves with more guns. Their raids were done at night, and caused the Germans to believe that a large armed Jewish force of communist Partisans was acting nearby. They also threatened the local population if they would assist in turning in Jewish refugees. Following heavy fighting against the Ukrainian militia staying at one of the farms in the town, the German troops avoided entering the town.
Ukrainian militia attacked any local people who assisted Jews in any way.
During this time there are reports of many atrocities commenced by the local Ukrainians, when finding or when approached by Jewish refugees asking for help.
By March 1944 the Russian army captured the region. The Jews decided not to return to the village, not wishing to meet with their hateful neighbors, and instead gathered in Refaowka, a former Jewish town whose Jews were all slaughtered. 200 Jewish refugees from the whole area assembled in the town, and began ritual Jewish life, in defiance of the antisemitic calls, still prevalent even after the German defeat.
Ilya Ehrenburg wrote his famous work after visiting Dubrovytsia and speaking with the locals. He had never met the Jewish survivors from the town, and was not told the continuation of the story.
Notable people
- Georges Charpak, a Nobel laureate in physics, was born in Dubrovytsia in 1924.
See also
In Spanish: Dubrovytsya para niños
