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This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Snyatyn, Ukraine, also known as Śniatyn, Shnyatin, Snetin, Sniatin, Snitin, Snyatin.
Sniatyn is a border town nestled on the banks of the Prut River--close to the Romanian border, and historically was a trade crossing to Romania. It is about 170 miles SSE of Lvov-- between Kolomyja in the West and Chernovits in the East. It was first mentioned in "print" in 1158 when it was named Ksniatyn after Kostiantyn Stroslavich--a famous commander at the court of king Yaroslav Osmomysl. There have been Jews in the town since well before the 16th century, though there is only precise documentation of this from the middle 1500's when Sniatyn began to function as a crossing point for the passage of merchandise from Germany to the Ottoman empire for the Jewish merchants. B. History 1. Overview Sniatyn is currently located in the Ukraine. However, from 1772-1918 the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled and the official language was German. After WWI it reverted back to Poland--with a corresponding change in the language of all official documents. The Romanians invaded at the start of W.W.II, followed by the Hungarians and then the Germans again. After WWII the town fell under the influence of the Soviets. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the town is now deemed part of the Ukraine. Because of its location, Sniatyn was a hub of trading and commerce, and thus, its residents spoke a little of many East European tongues. For Photographs of old Sniatyn postcard courtesy of Nicholas Martin
Starting in the 1870's, and accelerating with the turn of the century, the first large group of Sniatyner immigrants packed up and left. Pogroms and economic necessity motivated these immigrants. Most went to Israel, Canada, and the United States. Perhaps the biggest Jewish exodus occurred in response to the front-line fighting that took place in the area during WWI. Jews in the town continued to leave, although in smaller numbers, until the late 1930's. At some point during World War II, all the Jews who were still left in Sniatyn were grouped together and either taken to the nearby forest and shot by Nazis and local Nazi sympathizers-- or sent to the death camp at Belzec. The synagogue was pillaged and burned.
From the "new" Sniatyner, Ukraine Jewish Cemetery.
From the "new" Sniatyner, Ukraine Jewish Cemetery. Picture taken in 1992 by Ben Solomowitz. The stone says: 1892, 15th Adar. Here lies a modest woman, Mrs. Bilimah, a daughter of Abraham. May her soul be encircled in the binds of life.
Nowadays, in the Jewish cemetery--the stones, some leaning crazily askew, now lie untended, covered by weeds and dirt. (Some of the stones were pulled out by the Nazis to pave the street in front of the former Jewish home that was appropriated as the Nazi headquarters.)
2. WWII In early July, 1941 Sniatyn was captured by units of the Romanian army (who were then German allies). About a week later, helped by some Ukrainian groups, the Romanians staged riots in the city and more than 20 Jews were murdered. Romanian soldiers then killed Jewish refugees from Bukowina and Bessarabia who were trying to seek shelter in Sniatyn. The Romanians had control of Sniatyn for about more two weeks after which the Hungarians took over. The Hungarians continued to seize Jews for forced labor, but the Hungarian military ruler also restrained the Ukrainians to a certain degree. (This was helpful because the Ukrainians had continued to continuously harass the Jews.) Those Jews who were taken for forced labor were occupied in harvesting grain and in road and bridge repair.
In September of 1941, rule of the city was transferred to the Germans. Immediately they took a Jewish census with an emphasis on those aged 15-60 (those required to participate in forced labor). All cattle, horses, and wagons belonging to Jews were confiscated .At the same time, a Judenrat was set headed up by Cohen, the dentist in Sniatyn. The Judenrat was responsible for supplying people for forced labor, and were also held responsible for the many Jews who came to Sniatyn from surrounding villages during September and October.
In the end of September, 1941, the Germans arrested 30 Jews and demanded a high ransom for their release. Even though the ransom was paid, they were not released but were executed in the Potoczek forest near the city. Before their executions, they were forced to dig their own graves.
During the months of October and December, 1941, there were approximately 500 executions of Jews in the Potoczek forest near Sniatyn. Then, in early 1942, the Jews were concentrated in a special quarter of the city. There was extreme overcrowding there. Sanitary conditions were bad, and many died of hunger and disease.
On April 2, 1942, (the first day of Passover) all Jews were told to report to a central point, but most hid. Units of the German army, police, and Ukrainian militia mustered all those who did come into the public gymnasium, and they were held there for a week. During this period, the Germans and their assistants continued to bring Jews from the surrounding areas into the gymnasium until, ultimately, 5,000 persons were concentrated in that area. The conditions were inhumane .Many died of thirst; some were trampled to death-- and the Germans and the Ukrainians shot into the crowd and murdered many other Jews that way. The only ones released were a group of persons with vital professions, who were handed over to the local Wehrmacht commanders. All those who remained were taken to the train station, put on freight cars, and carried to the Belzec death camp.
Those few left in Sniatyn tried to escape. Groups of young people and even some families, tried to get to Romania, but only a few succeeded. In the summer of 1942, Romanian border patrols captured many of these refugees and turned them over to the German police. After interrogation and torture, they were executed. In the ghetto itself, bunkers were dug in order to find shelter during actions. In July of 1942, more exiles from surrounding areas were put into the ghetto, among them Jews from Zablotov.
The final destruction of the ghetto began on September 7, 1942. The Germans and their assistants set fire to part of the ghetto in order to find the hiding places of those that were hiding. Once again Jews were rounded up and placed in the gymnasium. This continued for four days. Some Jews were murdered in the streets of the city or in the gymnasium itself. The remaining victims were marched to the train station-- 4 kilometers away. While crossing a bridge, the Germans and Ukrainians shot a number of Jewish women, and their bodies were thrown off the bridge to the river below. About 1,500 of the remaining Sniatyner Jews were sent for destruction to Belzec death camp. A few managed to save themselves by jumping off the train although many of the these were shot by the German guards, and others were turned in to the police by the local population and immediately murdered.
Sniatyn was then declared Juden rein [free of Jews]. (NB. In the area, there was still a small group of craftsmen who worked at an army camp. Within a few weeks, however, even these few remaining Jews were destroyed.) Only about 15 people succeeded in escaping at the last minute to Czernowitz and into Romania. In the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, those survivors went to Palestine.)
German officials examine the pile of abandoned luggage
German officials examine the pile of abandoned luggage left on the platform after the departure of a deportation train on its way to the Belzec death camp. (Photo Archive in public domain)
NOTE: The Belzec death camp was in Poland. There, 600,000 Jews and hundreds of Gypsies were killed. Most were gassed immediately upon arriving there--as was true of "death camps"--which differed from "concentration camps" (who employed some Jews in forced labor) in this way. From the winter of 1942 through the spring of 1943 the mass graves in Belzec were opened and the corpses burned--in order to try to destroy evidence of the mass murders perpetrated there.
C. Famous Sniatyner Rabbis Through the Ages
Reb Moshe haLevi, son of Meir Heller.(circa 1780). Reb Yosef Ginsberg (circa 1792) In 1820, Reb Aaron Moshe Toybish served as head of the beth din.Among his works are The Horns of the Ram and The Thousand Folds of the Ram. At the end end of the 19th century, Reb David Meir, son of Yosef, functioned as head of the beth din (before that, he was the rabbi of Provozhna).He founded a society for visitation of the sick and from its income assisted the local chevra kadisha.Reb David Meir emmigrated to Safed before 1888 and functioned as a rabbi there until his death in 1894. Between the years 1869 and 1875, Reb Yona, son of RebShlomo Ashkenazi from Pashborzk, functioned as Synatyn’s rabbi, and he was the author of The Breastplate (he died in 1885). In 1905, Reb Naftali Meshulam Feivish haLevi Gottesman settled in Snyatyn and he held sway there until his death in 1913. The place of Reb Naftali Meshulam was taken by his son, Rev Shimshon Efraim, who died in the Holocaust with his entire family. During the first decade of the 20th century, the rabbi of Snyatyn was Reb Menachem Mendel Brenner, and beside him, also serving as rabbi, was Reb Avraham Menachem haLevi Steinberg. Postcard of old Sniatyn courtesy of Nicholas Martin.
Postcard of old Sniatyn courtesy of Nicholas Martin.
D. The Sniatyn Landsmanshaft: United Sniatyner Sick and Benevolent Society, Inc. Our Sniatyner Society in New York City has been around since the turn of the century, and still meets twice a year in Manhattan. Composed of Sniatyners who left before and after W.W.II, their children, and their grandchildren, the Society today is an amalgam of five different Sniatyner societies of the past (the Sniatyner Kranken Unt). All have joined together into today's United Sniatyner Sick and Benevolent Society, Inc. Sniatyn Landsmanshaft
Photograph of Sniatyn Landsmanshaft -- 38th Anniv. Banquet- Sniatyner KUV Jan. 5, 1935. Bottom row right to left:Max Gottesman, Benjamin H. Sol (Solomowitz), William Seidman, Izzy Fleischer, Henry Goldner, 2 unknowns. Top Row- Right to left: Moe Silver, Joe Karpel, Sam Lentz, unknown, Ben Blaustein, unknown, Morris Fleischer, Unknown.
Between meetings, members often communicate to carry out Society projects. Recently, these have included: photographing of the headstones in the old Jewish cemetery in Sniatyn and translating and data basing the results, compiling information (interviews, pictures, maps, etc.) for the writing of an on-line Yizkor book for Sniatyn, indexing of old tax records of the town, translating of an Israeli telephone list of former residents of Sniatyn, sending out questionnaires to diaspora-descendents of Sniatyn, and searching for other relevant historical documents. In recent years more and more second and third generation Sniatyners have joined the group. For these people the group provides one avenue of finding out about their families who had lived in the town. Coming to a Sniatyner meeting --one meets a group of people who, one can sense, come from the same place--a place that still lightly bonds us--the town of Sniatyn on the Prut. Those of us who heard about the town from our grandparents who left around the 1900 s, heard words of flowing rivers, large, close families, vast forests, and merchant and trader occupations, However, starting in the early 1930--descriptions of life in the town inevitably changed to scenes of rising uneasy interchange between Jews and Poles, leading to pogroms, leading to the slaughter of all the Jews in the town--all slaughtered in that deep forest when countless young lovers had secretly met, and where many Sniatyner children had lain in the grass and dreamed.