also known as: Felsőapsa (HU), Vyšná Apša (CZ), Verkhneye Vodyanoye (RU), Oyber Apsa (Yid)
48°00' N / 23°58' E
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Verkhnye Vodyane
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1920 and 1938-1944) with the name of Felsőapsa
in Máramaros megye (county), next part of Czechoslovakia (1920-1938) with the name of Vyšná Apša
in Podkarpatská Rus (Sub-Carpathia), then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945-1991) with the name of Verkhneye Vodyanoye
and, since 1991, known as Verkhnye Vodyane, in the Rakhiv rayon (district) of Zakarpats'ka oblast (county) of Ukraine.
Other spellings/names for Verkhnye Vodyane are Ober Apsa, Vizhna Apsha, Visni Apsa and Werchnje Wodjane.
In Yiddish, Verkhnye Vodyane is known as Oyber Apsa
Verkhnye Vodyane is located about six miles northeast of Sighetu Marmaţiei (Sziget) and eleven miles west-southwest of Rakhiv (Rahó).
Jews probably settled in Verkhnye Vodyane in the mid-18th century. In 1768, there was one Jewish family comprising ten persons.
By 1880, the Jewish population was 312 (of a total population of 1,912).
In 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population rose to 1,283.
By 1941, the Jewish population was 1,289.
Among the Jewish breadwinners were families that earned their livelihoods from a few dozen stores, fifteen workshops and a number farmed small plots of land.
With the Hungarian occupation of Verkhnye Vodyane in March, 1939, Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations. In 1941, Jews from Verkhnye Vodyane were drafted into forced labor battalions and others were drafted for service on the Eastern front, where most died.
In August, 1941, a number of Jewish families without Hungarian citizenship were expelled to Nazi occupied Ukrainian territory, to Kamenets-Podolski, and murdered there.
The remaining Jews of Verkhnye Vodyane were deported to Auschwitz mid-May 1944.
A great many of the Jews from Verkhnye Vodyane were murdered in Auschwitz and a few survivors returned, but eventually settled elsewhere.
In 2001, Verkhnye Vodyane had about 5,272 inhabitants and no Jews live there today.
Sources (portions): The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001), p. 1418
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