Kolki is in the former Volhynia Gubernia, most of which is in present day Ukraine. This site connects you with the Jewish history of Kolki through first-person accounts, Holocaust testimonies, family histories, photographs and other resources that can help you learn more about how your ancestors lived, and perhaps help you discover names or photos of relatives. A significant portion of this material has been shared by others with ties to Kolki. If you have photos, documents, stories or materials that you would like to contribute to this site, or if you find any errors, please email the coordinator, who will be happy to assist with the scanning of photos or other materials you may have.

Yizkor Book Translation Project

Fun ash aroysgerufn (Summoned From the Ashes) was written in Yiddish in 1983 by Daniel Kac. Through it, survivors and their families speak about the history of the town, what life there was like, its people, and their fate. The table of contents provides links to every translated chapter which are free to read online. Please note that additional editing is in process and some changes are expected in the coming months.

History

• Read the English translation of the Kolki Yizkor book Fun ash aroysgerufn (Summoned from the ashes) written in 1983 by Daniel Kac. Locate libraries holding the original book.
  
• Kolki in the Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland (Pinkas Hakehillot Polin)
• Gzeyres Takh Vetat, acronym referring to the “[Evil] Decrees of 1648–1649.” Kolki was in an area affected by a large-scale uprising of Cossack and Ukrainian peasants during this time, which resulted in  many Jewish casualties and many Jewish communities being destroyed. From the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.
  
• Cossacks' Uprising, and the impact on Jewish life. This article is related to the one above. It includes a map, which includes Kolki, of "chief towns where outbreaks against the Jews occurred during the Cossack Invasion, 1648-1656." It also lists Kolki as one of a long list of towns affected by an outbreak of the plague during 1648-1658.
  
• 1897 Volhynia Jewish Population List, including Kolki.
• Interview with a former Kolki-ite, June 1999
• Where was Kolk?, by Alex Kolker.
• Locate libraries holding copies of Memorial book: The Jewish communities of Manyevitz, Horodok, Lishnivka, Troyanuvka, Povursk and Kolki : Wolyn region. The section about Kolki starts on page 447 and is 8 pages long.
  
• Search the full text of The Jewish Communities of Manyevitz, Horodok, Lishnivka, Troyanuvka, Povursk and Kolki : Wolyn Region, and see snippets from the book containing your search terms, on Google Books.
• Your local library may be able to obtain a copy of the above books for you to borrow through an inter-library loan (ILL).
  
• Jewish History of Ukraine
  
• In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918–1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, is the history of how the mass killings of 100,000 Jews from 1918 to 1921, including in Volhynia province, presaged the Holocaust. Click for reviews on The Times of Israel, and the publisher's website.
  

Holocaust

• Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, contains a history of the Kolki ghetto.
  
• Article on the United States Holocaust Museum web site describing the liquidation of the Kolki ghetto.
• A brief history of Kolki in Yad Vashem's The Untold Stories: The Murder Sites of Jews in the Occupied Territories of the Former USSR.
• Murder story of Kołki Jews in the Gorbky Forest, on the Yad Vashem website.
  
• Murder Story of Kołki Jews in Tserkvishe, on the Yad Vashem website.
  
• The Oral history interview with Ethel Kaplan (nee Etie Bronsztien), on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, records her story from the time of her birth in 1920 through survival of the Holocaust and to her emigration to the United States.
  
• Read about the Extraordinary State Commission to Investigate German-Fascist Crimes Committed on Soviet Territory on JewishGen and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web sites. This report includes Kolki. Please contact me if you would like to volunteer to obtain this material and translate it from Russian.
• YAHAD-IN UNUM Town page for Kolki - Eyewitness accounts of what happened in Kolki after the Germans arrived.
• The Auschwitz searchable database allows you to search for records of those murdered at Auschwitz by name, place of birth and last residence.
  
• Search the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names on Yad Vashem.
• List of liberated Jews in Kolki, a document record in the Arolsen Archives.
• I Want You To Know We’re Still Here, by Esther Safran Foer. In this book, "we learn about life in Kolki, Ukraine, home to Esther’s family, a shtetl, where so close are the kinship bonds that your best school friend, is likely to be the child of your second cousin, for this is where your tribe has lived for generation after generation. It is more than a town, it is your world, your friends, your family." Read the complete review.

Visits to Kolki

• Report on a trip to Kolki (June 2004). Also see the complete set of photos here. The link will open a new browser window.
• A Trip to Kolki, by Jimmy Kolker (1994)
• Brief descriptions of Kolki in a summary of a trip to Trochenbrod, Lutsk, and Kiev.
  

Photographs from Kolki

Click the links for next and previous below the photos to navigate through them.

• The Elders of Kolk
• Rabbi Yakil Save of Kolk
• Pesach Shnitzer (Der Kleizmer) (also spelled Pesakh Sznicer)
  
• Beit Sefer Amani B'Kolki - The Tarbut School in 1925
• Beitar Youth Movement
• The Wood Marketplace - 1
  
• The Wood Marketplace - 2
  
• Wood Merchants in Kolki
• A Polish elementary school class
  
• Kolki Memorial at Yad Vashem
  

Archival Holdings

• Search the Ellis Island database for records of immigrants from Kolki. Searching for "Kolk" without using a surname, returns 916 records. Searching for "Kolki" returns 310 records. Searching for "Kolky" returns 58 records.
• Search for Kolki holdings in Eastern European archives identified by the Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation. The RTR inventory shows holdings in the Lutsk archives including birth, death, marriage and divorce. Records held in Zhitomir include census records from 1862, 1865 and 1868. Also see chapters related to Ukraine on the RTR web site.
• JewishGen InfoFiles covering Ukraine.
• Archives of Ukraine English web site.
• Minute books from the Kolker Lodge are housed at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center.
• Ladies Auxiliary Minute Book (1940-1972) of the Kolker Synagogue, housed at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center.

Cemeteries

• Report on the Jewish cemetery in Kolki, from the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative.
  
• International Jewish Cemetery Project general information and report on the mass grave and cemetery in Kolki.
• Baron Hirsch Cemetery, Staten Island, NY, Section G- gates 54 & 89 was established by the Kolker Benevolent Society in 1904.
• Kolker Lodge burial plots at Montefiore Cemetery, Jenkintown, PA
• Hebrew Mount Carmel Cemetery, 6700 German Hill Road, Baltimore 21222, was used by Knesseth Israel Anshe Kolk and Kolker Congregation (source)

Family Histories

• Deckelbaum Immigration - A History
• The Kippelman / Kipilman Family from Kolki
• The Kolker Family Home Page
• The Zuler Chronicles is the history of a family with roots in Kolki. The book is free to read online or download and contains memories and accounts of events that took place in Kolki.

Maps

• JewishGen Locality Page - provides a map of the location of Kolki as well as links to location of nearby towns.

Search JewishGen Databases

• Search the JewishGen Family Finder for others researching Kolki.
• Search the JewishGen Discussion Group message archives for references to Kolki.
• Search the JewishGen Special Interest Groups message archives.
  

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Compiled by Andrew Blumberg Updated December 21, 2025 Copyright © Andrew Blumberg

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