Three hundred and fifty Jews were burned to death by the Nazis in a synagogue in Berdichev, where they had been assembled at the order of the German commander, it was reported here today by Hirsch Giterman, a Jewish carpenter from the city, who fled after the Nazis seized Berdichev. The Jews were instructed to appear at the synagogue with their prayer shawls in order “to pray for forgiveness for their sins against the Germans.” When all the worshippers were inside, the Nazis bolted the doors and set fire to the building, Giterman disclosed.
Several partisans who were fighting in the Volhynia district of Poland and who are now in Kuibyshev hospitals recuperating, report that not a single Jew remains in the Polish city of Rowno, which had a large Jewish population. They said that shortly after the Nazi capture of Rowno, the Jews were removed to two isolated sections of the city. During this past winter, however, these districts were destroyed by the Nazis and most of the residents perished, with the exception of a handful of Jews who succeeded in escaping to the neighboring township of Kostopol.
The Ukrainian city of Chernigov has also been made “Judenrein,” a Jewish refugee Israel Vesioli, who escaped from the city, reports. After several months of bloody massacres by the Nazis, only two Jews were left in the city, Vesioli stated. They were two doctors, Ginsberg and Hoffman, who were needed by the Germans. However, when a virulent typhoid epidemic swept the city and the two physicians, handicapped by lack of medicine and adequate facilities, were unable to check it, the Nazis publicly announced that they were responsible for the epidemic, and executed them.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
