This web site is dedicated to the study of Jewish family history in the town of Derazhne,
now in Ukraine, but formerly part of the Volhynia Gubernia of the Russian Empire.

The shtetl of Derazhne has been in existence since at least the seventeenth century. In
the late nineteenth century the Jewish population, about half that of the total citizenry,
was seven-hundred and seventy.

The twentieth century saw an increase in anti-semitism; thirty Jewish homes were
burned in 1936.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty resulted in the Russians controlling Derazhne for two
years beginning in 1939. The Germans betrayed the Soviet Union in June 1941.
On 28 June 1941, the Nazis announced their entrance into Derazhne by murdering
a number of Jewish men living there. This assertion of absolute power was
followed by the creation of a Judenrat; a ghetto was set up in October 1941.
The inevitable end occurred on 22 August 1942 at a nearby open pit!
(source: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life, Before and During the Holocaust,
vol I, p. 304)

Alternative Names: Derazhne [Ukr], Derazhno [Rus], Derażne [Pol], Derazhna [Yid], Deraźne

Location: Ukraine, 50°52' N, 26°03' E

Nearest large city: Rivne