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JewishHistoryעברית

Rivne Sosenki Forest massacre

Date
7 November 1941 – 9 November 1941Hebrew date: 17th of Cheshvan, 5702 – 19th of Cheshvan, 5702
Location
Sosenki Forest, near RivneUkraine
Then part of
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Perpetrators
  • German Order Police (State)
  • Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C (State)
  • German Order Police (State)
  • Ukrainian auxiliary police (Militia / auxiliaries)
  • German Order Police (State)
Killed (estimate)
17,500 – 21,000[2]Jews of Rivne shot in Sosenki Forest. Yad Vashem records 17,500 assembled on 7 November and states that over 80 percent of Rivne's Jews, including more than 6,000 children, were executed over three days. YIVO gives approximately 21,000 shot on 7–8 November.
Locality

77% – 97% of the Jewish population of Sosenki Forest, near Rivne[2]

Country

1.1% – 1.4% of the Jewish population of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (c. 1939)[8]

Worldwide

0.11% – 0.13% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1939)[3]

Category
Massacre
Confidence
DisputedYad Vashem gives 17,500 assembled and killed over 7–9 November. YIVO gives approximately 21,000 shot on 7–8 November about 6 km from the town. The 17,500–21,000 range covers both.

Summary

German troops occupied Rivne on 28 June 1941. YIVO records that about 3,000 Jews were murdered in July and August. On 7 November, Jews without labor permits were ordered to assemble at Church Square (Grabnik Square). Yad Vashem records that 17,500 people were marched about 4 km east to Sosenki Forest, where Soviet prisoners of war had dug pits, and shot over 7–9 November. The principal shooters were Police Battalion 320 and Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C, with Ukrainian auxiliary police; Police Battalion 315 encircled the site. The operation was organized by Order Police commander Otto von Oelhafen and coordinated with Gebietskommissar Werner Beer. YIVO dates the shooting to 7–8 November and gives approximately 21,000 killed. Remaining Jews were forced into a ghetto that was liquidated on 13 July 1942.

Sources

  1. Murder Story of Rowne Jews in the Sosenki Forest. Yad Vashem, The Untold Stories
  2. Vladimir Levin, Rivne. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 16,500,000 – 16,633,675[3]c. 1939DellaPergola's revised core estimate for 1 January 1939 is 16.5 million. The American Jewish Year Book 1948–49 compiled 16,633,675 at the end of 1939.
  • Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: 1,532,776[8]c. 1939Jewish nationality in the Ukrainian SSR in the 17 January 1939 All-Union census (5.0% of the republic).
  • Sosenki Forest, near Rivne: 21,702 – 22,737[2]Jews in Rivne in the Polish censuses, before the German occupation. YIVO gives 21,702 in 1921 (71 percent of the town) and 22,737 in 1931 (56 percent). The 1931 census is ten years before the November 1941 massacre. YIVO does not give a 1939 or 1941 community total.

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