The Black, Bloody Friday in the Ruzhin Shtetl - Ukraine

 

          I, Tzipora (Feige) Dukhovna, was born in Ruzhin shtetl, on a street named Zladeiskaya.  I will describe to you the perishing of Ruzhin Jewry.

          Ruzhin was a small Jewish shtetl with about 4000 townsfolk. In the area of Ruzhin, about 40 km. away, was a very small shtetl, Belyivka, where there were 40 families. Good-hearted Jews were the Jews of Belyivka. There were many villages surrounding Ruzhin. There were a few Jewish families there too.

 

In the beginning of the year 1942 the German bandits had driven all the Jews out of all those places I mentioned.  The surviving Jewish families of Ruzhin who remained after the first slaughter (which took place on 10 September 1941) affectionately took in those Jews who remained without a roof over their heads. Everyone in our shtetl helped them in whatever way he was able. That is how we lived together like one family until May 1, 1942.  On April 30, 1942 - Thursday evening - springtime in the Ukraine, the nights were still quite cold.  That day, the sky was entirely overcast and it didn't stop raining.  It seemed as if the heavens sympathized for us and were already crying over us. That night a rumor spread throughout the shtetl that the Gestapo had arrived. The spreading rumor threw a shuddering fear and trembling over each one of us.  The indication by which we knew were from the following signs:

 

The Ukrainian polizei had their clothes, shoes and boots repaired by Jewish craftsmen.  That evening of April 30, 1942, they all ran around from one workshop to another, taking back their shoes and clothes, although they were not yet finished.  Everyone understood that the second slaughter was coming. The

frightful feeling did not avoid anyone. On the morning of May 1, 1942 the Ruzhin shtetl was "cleansed" of Jewish life.  The day of the slaughter fell on a Friday.

The Black Bloody Friday, which I will never forget to the last day of my life.

May 1, 1971 will be 29 years since the perishing of Ruzhin Jewry.  I, Tzipora Duchovna, the sole survivor of our shtetl, turn to

the institution “Yad Vashem”, the authority for the memory of the Holocaust and Heroism, that you should eternalize their names.