From top left - Synagogue of Lutsk, interior with Bhima, architectural drawing, Star of David from building.
hoping to inspire them to fight against the Germans. Instead, the Russians executed them. (Katyn massacre). The Soviets quick- ly annex the Volhynia region capturing our family along the way. The town leaders of Łutsk were arrested and sent to Siberia. Many people sent away to Siberia died in transit. As odd as it might sound, sending these people far away may have also saved some of them from the atroci- ties of the looming war. June 25th, 1941, Hitler double-crossed the Soviets and attacked Russia. That is how the town of Łutsk fell into the hands of the Nazis. Most of the Jews fled ahead of their arrival. Of the ones who remained, 3,000 were killed within days, and the rest were corralled into a ghetto. September 1942, that ghetto swelled to 25,000. The lucky ones were used for slave labor.
December 12th, 1942, all hope was lost. Orders were executed to liquidate the ghetto. During the annihilation, 500 ghetto dwellers took up arms against the Nazis. The fighting was so heated that artillery was brought in to suppress the resistance. February 1944, the Soviets liberate Łutsk, a mere shadow of its Jewish residents returned. The fortified temple was turned into a movie theater and later into a sports hall. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated by the building of a residential area directly over the graves. 1959, Jews clung to Łutsk with a popula- tion 600. In 1989, 1,000. In 1989, almost all of them left, emigrating en masse to Israel; 160 elderly were left behind and died out. And so a region full of Yiddish culture for almost 700 years, was left only with remnants and stories today.
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