Vapniarka

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Vapniarka (Ukrainian: Вапнярка) is a town in Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine, known since 1870 as a railroad station. Population is 8,600 (2005).

[edit] World War II

Under the Romanian occupation (October 22, 1941, to March 1944) the seven hundred local Jewish inhabitants had fled or had been killed by the Germans and the Romanians. In October 1941 the Romanians established a detention camp in Vapniarca. One thousand Jews were brought to the camp that month, mostly from Odessa. Some two hundred died in a typhus epidemic; the others were taken out of the camp in two batches, guarded by Romanian gendarmes, and shot to death.

In 1942, 150 Jews from Bukovina were brought to Vapniarca. On September 16, 1,046 Romanian Jews were brought to the camp. About half had been banished from their homes on suspicion of being Communists, but 554 of them had been included, without any specific charges being raised against them. This was the last transport to arrive at the camp; its status was changed to that of a concentration camp for political prisoners, under the direct control of the Ministry of the Interior in Bucharest. In practice, Vapniarca was a concentration camp for Jewish prisoners, since no other "politicals" were held there; the only other inmates were some Ukrainian convicts. Of the 1,179 Jews in the camp, 107 were women, who were housed in two huts surrounded by a triple - apron barbed - wire fence.

Among the Jewish prisoners were 130 Communists, 200 Social Democrats, and also Trotskyists and Zionists. Most of the prisoners, however, had been arrested on purely arbitrary grounds. The inmates established a camp committee to help them survive despite starvation, disease, hard labor, and physical and mental torture. Apart from the official committee the camp also had an underground leadership, and between the two they persuaded the prisoners to observe discipline voluntarily.

The camp commandant introduced severe restrictions on the supply of water. By keeping the camp meticulously clean, the prisoners were able to overcome the typhus epidemic, but they suffered from the poor quality of the food, which included a species of pea that was normally used to feed horses (Lathyrus sativus), and barley bread that had a 20% straw content. A team of doctors among the inmates, led by Dr. Arthur Kessler of Chernovitz, reached the conclusion that the disease presented all the symptoms of Lathyrism, a spastic paralysis caused by the pea fodder.

Within a few weeks the first symptoms of Lathyrism appeared, a disease that affects the bone marrow and causes paralysis. By January 1943 hundreds of prisoners were suffering from the disease. The inmates declared a hunger strike and demanded medical assistance. As a result, the authorities allowed the Jewish Aid Committee in Bucharest to supply them with medicine, and the prisoners' relatives were allowed to send them parcels. It was only at the end of January that the prisoners were no longer fed with the animal fodder that had caused the disease, but 117 Jews were paralyzed for life.

In March 1943 it was found that 427 Jews had been imprisoned for no reason whatsoever. They were moved to various ghettos in Transnistria, but only in December 1943 and January 1944 were they sent back to Romania and released. In October 1943, when the Soviet army was approaching, it was decided to liquidate the camp. 80 Jews were sent to ghettos in Transnistria. 54 Communists were taken to a prison in Rabnita, Transnistria, where they were killed in their cells by SS men on March 19, 1944. A third group, which included most of the prisoners (565 persons), was moved to Romania in March 1944 and imprisoned in the Tirgu - Jiu camp until after the fall of the Ion Antonescu government.

Many of the former prisoners in Vapniarca were appointed to senior posts in the new Romanian regime, among them Simion Bughici, who became foreign minister.

[edit] External links

• Nizkor Project Tesimony of a camp inmate
• Shoah Resource Center - Yad Vashem Personal artifacts from camp inmates, including Vapniarka

	Administrative divisions of Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine
	Raions: Barskyi | Bershadskyi | Chechelnytskyi | Chernivetskyi | Haisynskyi | Illinetskyi | Kalynivskyi | Khmilnytskyi | Koziatynskyi | Kryzhopilskyi | Litynskyi | Lypovetskyi | Mohyliv-Podilskyi | Murovanokurylovetskyi | Nemyrivskyi | Orativskyi | Pishchanskyi | Pohrebyschenskyi | Sharhorodskyi | Teplytskyi | Tomashpilskyi | Trostianetskyi | Tulchynskyi | Tyvrivskyi | Vinnytskyi | Yampilskyi | Zhmerynskyi
	Cities: Bar | Bershad | Haisyn | Hnivan | Illintsi | Kalynivka | Khmilnyk | Koziatyn | Ladyzhyn | Lypovets | Mohyliv-Podilskyi | Nemyriv | Pohrebysche | Sharhorod | Tulchyn | Vinnytsia | Yampil | Zhmerynka
	Urban-type settlements: Chechelnyk | Chernivtsi | Kryzhopil | Lityn | Murovani Kurylivtsi | Orativ | Pishchanka | Shpykiv | Teplyk | Tomashpil | Trostianets | Tyvriv | Vapniarka | more...
	Villages: Makhnovka | Olhopil | Plyskiv | Sobolivka | more...