Human Dimension of the Holocaust Tragedy in Zaporizhzhia (1941-1942)

Keywords: Holocaust, Zaporizhzhia, Jews, everyday life, survival strategies, resistance

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to highlight the everyday life of Jews during the Nazi occupation in Zaporizhzhia and the peculiarities of the murder of Zaporizhzhia Jewish community in 1941-1942.

The scientific novelty. For the first time, the human dimension of the tragedy of the Holocaust in the city of Zaporizhzhia becomes the subject of research in the context of the history of the Shoah in Ukraine. Based on the analysis of video interviews of victims and witnesses of the Holocaust by the Institute of Visual History and Education Collection of the Shoah Foundation (University of Southern California, USA), survival strategies and individual resistance of Jews are considered, and the role of the local population in the rescue and death of Zaporizhzhia Jews is shown. The paper clarifies the lower chronological boundary of implementing the Holocaust in Zaporizhzhia.

Conclusions. The Jews of Zaporizhzhia, unlike the Jewish population of Western Ukrainian cities, could mostly leave the city. The choice of 8-17% of Jews to stay in the city was determined by factors that stopped the Jews of Zaporizhzhia and other cities alike: financial difficulties, peculiarities of the family status of Jews, and positive memories of the Germans from the time of World War I. Residents of Zaporizhzhia still had their hopes that the Germans would not cross the Dnipro. In addition, in industrial Zaporizhzhia, Jewish workers held on to their workplaces to the last. The evacuation organized by the administration of the factories did not guarantee the preservation of life.

The research made it possible to reveal that the Holocaust in Zaporizhzhia did not begin in November, but in August 1941 – immediately with the entry of the Germans into the territory of the right-bank part of the city. In Zaporizhzhia, the Germans repeated their previous deadly practices, which turned the daily life of the Jews into a struggle for survival. The mass execution of Jews in Zaporizhzhia was carried out later than in other cities of southern Ukraine. Unlike in most cities, in Zaporizhzhia, the transition of power to mass executions was not limited to a month or two after the moment the city was occupied. That time allowed Jews to build strategies for their survival. The reconstruction of life stories shows that Jews tried to resist the genocide in various ways.

The activities of individual representatives of the local population, who were members of the occupying authorities, were part of the assurance of the genocidal policy. However, at the same time, every Jew who remained alive testifies to the help of ‘neighbors’. The Holocaust in Zaporizhzhia evinced the conventionality of the roles played by people during the Shoah when the boundaries between the categories ‘criminal’ – ‘observer’ – and ‘savior’ were quite blurred.

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Published
15.10.2024
How to Cite
Savchuk, T. (2024). Human Dimension of the Holocaust Tragedy in Zaporizhzhia (1941-1942). Eminak: Scientific Quarterly Journal, (3(47), 352-373. https://doi.org/10.33782/eminak2024.3(47).744
Section
Modern History