THE SITUATION OF JEWS IN THE GHETTO OF MIZOCH

Abstract

The article describes the situation of Jews during their stay in the Mizoch ghetto in March-October 1942. Anti-Semitic measures in the ghetto turned the victims of the Holocaust into an object of humiliation and exploitation, created a ground for bullying and persecution.

The prisoners of the ghetto got there already robbed, because it was not possible to take all the property with them. Living conditions were difficult in overcrowded houses. Sanitary conditions were unsatisfactory. In the use of Jewish labor, economic exploitation threatened the health and lives of workers.

The looting of ghetto prisoners became one of the means of depriving them of the conditions for their existence, as such conditions made it impossible to support their own lives. Wearing special badges humiliated Jews and turned them into social outcasts. Other restrictions include a ban on eating meat, raising pets and poultry. Such conditions forced them to look for different ways out of the situation, in particular through illegal trade with local nonJews. Illegal trade could eventually lead to the deaths of Jews. Often in the context of the food crisis, ghetto prisoners in search of food tried to move to the «Aryan» side. Young children and teenagers did the most. Jewish homes could not be a safe haven for them, as Ukrainian police often searched them. Jews were dehumanized and humiliated. Being in the ghetto was not only a physical or a moral ordeal.

Eventually, like all established ghettos, the Mizoch ghetto was destroyed. After the murder of the Jews in October 1942, the Jewish community of Mizoch ceased to exist and could no longer recover.