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Overviews of the Jewish history of Dubno:
Polish Census of 1931 (Per Yad Vashem)
7,364 Jewish residents out of 12,696 (58%)
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invade and partition Poland (from various sources):
Friday, September 1, 1939: German forces invade Poland from the West.
Sunday, September 17, 1939: Soviet forces invade Poland from the East.
Monday, September 18, 1939: Soviet forces occupy Dubno.
Friday, October 6, 1939: Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland. Dubno is in the Soviet sphere.
November, 1939: The Soviets conduct sham elections and incorporate occupied Poland into the Soviet Union.
Jewish community institutions are liquidated; businesses and buildings are nationalized; Jewish welfare institutions are transferred to the government; political parties are banned; and Jewish leaders are arrested.
The Jewish population of Dubno swells with refuges from the West, areas occupied by Nazi Germany. The only community institution allowed by the Soviets is a soup kitchen for these refugees. It is estimated that there were 15,000 Jews crowded into Dubno in June, 1941.
NKVD (Soviet Secret Police) arrest thousands, many of whom are Jewish; locking them up in the Lutsk Gate Prison on the outskirts of Dubno. Some are executed; many are transferred to prisons in Siberia. Upon the subsequent invasion by Germany, the NKVD executed almost all of the remaining 500 prisoners before abandoning Dubno and fleeing to the east.
Timeline of Shoah in Dubno (from various sources):
Sunday, June 22, 1941: Nazi’s attack the USSR and start bombing Dubno.
Wednesday, June 25, 1941: German troops march into Dubno.
Their first order was: “All Jews, from age fourteen up, must wear an armband with a blue Star of David on their sleeve.
Their second order was: “Forced labor for all Jews. He who will get out of doing this – will go to his death.”
Local Ukrainians indulge in acts of murder and robbery.
The Germans extract 100,000 rubles (equivalent to over $400,000 in 2024) from the Jewish Community.
July 22, 1941: 80 men were murdered at the Jewish cemetery.
August 21, 1941: 900 men were seized and murdered.
Summer, 1941: 100s are murdered in the streets of Dubno. Typical targets were young men and teenage boys.
Winter of 1941-42 arrived. Cold, frost, starvation, and grief. An order was given to give all fur coats to the Germans. For disobeying – death penalty. And a tax per head and an order to bring several kilo of gold.
Tuesday, April 1, 1942: A ghetto is decreed, all Jews must be inside by 7:00 am, April 2nd. Residents are permitted 100 grams of bread per day. This provides less than 300 calories of nourishment, far below what is needed to sustain life.
Late April 1942: Ghetto was divided into two, one for workers and their families and one for all others.
Wednesday, May 27, 1942: SS men tore into the “unproductive” side of the ghetto. About 4,500 were marched out of town and murdered.
August 1942: Jews from surrounding areas are moved into the ghetto.
Monday, October 5, 1942: About 5,000 Jews are ordered to march out of town and murdered. Among these were numerous family members. 353 artisans were spared.
Friday, October 23, 1942: The artisans were murdered, 14 escaped. Overall, about 12,000 were murdered. About 300 Dubno Jews survived.
On October 5, 1942, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer, witnessed the mass murder of Jews in Dubno. He could not do anything to stop this but did take action elsewhere to save Jews. He testified about what he saw at the Nuremburg trials, Click on the link for his story and his testimony: Story and testimony of Hermann Graebe,
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