Zbarazh Yizkor Book Translation

Project Synopsis

This project is being initiated to fund the translation to English of the “Sefer Zbaraz” book for Zbarazh Ukraine, that was edited by Moshe Sommerstein and published in 1983 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The goal is to eventually provide a complete translation of this book to JewishGen. A partial translation of the book already exists on JewishGen, including the table of contents, at www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Zbarazh/Zbarazh.html About 120 pages remain to be translated. The book can be seen online in the original Hebrew, Yiddish and English at the New York Public Library site, http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=1178

Key Audience

Jewish genealogists seeking to trace their roots to Zbarazh and its region constitute the primary audience for the material. However, the material has the potential to be of broader appeal to scholars interested in the region or specializing in Jewish history and society.

Yizkor books are unique sources of information on once vibrant towns, primarily in central and Eastern Europe, whose Jewish populations were destroyed in the Holocaust. Written after World War II by émigrés and Holocaust survivors, typically in Hebrew and Yiddish, yizkor books contain narratives of the history of the town, details of daily life, descriptions of religious and political figures and movements, religious and secular education, and stories of the major intellectual and Zionist movements of the 20th century. The necrologies and lists of residents are of tremendous genealogical value, as often the names of individuals who were taken to extermination camps or died in the forests are not recorded elsewhere. The translation of yizkor books into English unlocks this information to many more researchers all over the world.

Jews were living in Zbarazh 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.

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.

As funds become available, all Hebrew and Yiddish pages will be translated into English. To accomplish that, JewishGen will hire professional translators and will be responsible for their payment.

Estimated Cost

$3,600. JewishGen will be responsible for paying the translator, and donations to the fund will be tax-deductible for U.S. citizens.