Vapnyarka, Ukraine

Jewish History

Jewish settlement in Vapnyarka (Vapniarka) began to develop in the late 19th century, largely after the construction of the railway station in 1870, which turned the town into a regional transport and commercial hub within the Podolia Governorate. By the time of the 1897 Russian Empire census, Vapnyarka had 370 Jewish residents, comprising roughly half of the total population. Jews were primarily engaged in small trade, shopkeeping, crafts, and services connected to the railway, and the community supported a synagogue and basic religious institutions. The Center for Jewish Art has drawings and photos of the synagogue. My Shtetl also has additional historical information and photos. Despite economic opportunity, Jewish life was shaped by the restrictions of the Pale of Settlement and periodic insecurity, including antisemitic violence during the unrest of the early 20th century.

In the early Soviet period, the Jewish population continued to grow despite civil war and instability. By 1923, approximately 569 Jews lived in Vapnyarka, and on the eve of World War II the 1939 census recorded 711 Jews, about one-fifth of the town’s population. This community was effectively destroyed during the Holocaust. After the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Vapnyarka fell under Romanian administration as part of Transnistria. Most local Jews were deported or fled, and in late 1941–1942 Romanian authorities established the Vapnyarka camp, which held Jews deported from Odessa, Bukovina, and Romania. Hundreds of prisoners died from starvation, disease, and poisoning caused by being fed fodder peas (lathyrus sativus), a practice that led to paralysis and death. By the time the camp was closed in 1943, Jewish life in Vapnyarka had been devastated.

After World War II, a small number of Jews returned to Vapnyarka or resettled there from nearby areas, but the prewar community was never reestablished. Under Soviet rule, religious and communal activity was heavily restricted, though a modest Jewish presence persisted into the mid-20th century, with informal religious gatherings continuing into the 1960s and 1970s. By that time, the Jewish population had declined to around one hundred people, largely due to emigration and assimilation. By the early 21st century, only a handful of Jews, if any, remained in Vapnyarka, leaving the town’s Jewish history preserved mainly through archival records, survivor testimony, and memorialization of the Vapnyarka camp.