The Holocaust in Zhytomyr Region: Local Perpetrators and Rescuers

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the manifestations of Nazi Holocaust policy in Zhytomyr region, focusing on the aspects of the participation of the local population of the region in both genocidal actions and the rescue of the Jewish population.

The scientific novelty of the work is in the comprehensive study of the manifestations of the Holocaust in Zhytomyr region, the involvement of the region’s population in the murder of Jews and their rescue. As a result of the study, the propaganda stereotype concerning the direct involvement of Ukrainian independence movement representatives in the direct murders of the Jewish population has not been confirmed. The social drama in the conditions of occupation reality was that the local population, including that of Zhytomyr region, was simultaneously both among the perpetrators of the genocide and among the rescuers of Jews.

Conclusions. Zhytomyr region became one of the centres of the Nazi Holocaust policy in the occupied territory of Ukraine. During its occupation, according to the conclusions of researchers, at least 55,000 people of Jewish nationality were killed. At the same time, given the controversial nature of the source base, it can be argued that this figure is both inaccurate and underestimated.

For various reasons, the Holocaust in Zhytomyr region was distinguished by a number of features. That was a region where mass murders of Jews were among the first in the entire Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Despite the attempts of the occupiers to support anti-Jewish sentiments and provocations, cases of Jewish pogroms did not become widespread. The totality of the Holocaust in the region was manifested through the location of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler’s headquarters ‘Hegewald’ and the German colonies ‘Hegewald’ and ‘Försterstadt’ there.

Collaborators, in particular from the local auxiliary police, participated in the persecution and sometimes the murder of the Jewish population of Zhytomyr region. Concurrently, numerous locals, risking their own lives, participated in rescuing Jews.

At the same time, it should be noted that within the framework of the problem under study, promising areas of further research are the study of the influence of the personal presence of Reichsführer SS Himmler (in ‘Hegewald’), as well as the existence of the German colonies ‘Hegewald’ and ‘Försterstadt’ on the conduct and outcomes of the Holocaust in Zhytomyr region, as well as specific manifestations of genocidal actions and the rescue of Jews by the local population.