Germany: List of locations in Germany or German-occupied Europe where Jews from Ukraine were interned during World War II, and whether there was a concentration camp with a name similar to "Fafelvald" in Germany or German-occupied Europe
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 July 1997 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | DEU27389.E |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Germany: List of locations in Germany or German-occupied Europe where Jews from Ukraine were interned during World War II, and whether there was a concentration camp with a name similar to "Fafelvald" in Germany or German-occupied Europe, 1 July 1997, DEU27389.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac5a34.html [accessed 19 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Specific information on the locations where Jews from Ukraine were interned during World War II is scarce among the sources consulted by the DIRB.
The Encyclopedia Judaica article entry for Ukraine does not discuss the deportation of Ukrainian Jews to other countries during World War II. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica entry for Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Hungarian authorities treated Jews from the Ukrainian district of Subcarpathian Ruthenia as part of the Hungarian Jewish community (1971 Vol. 15, 471). With regard to concentration camps, the Encyclopedia Judaica entry for Hungary specifically mentions that Hungarian Jews were transported to Auschwitz camp (1971 Vol. 8, 1101). The Encyclopedia Judaica entry for Lvov specifically mentions Belzec camp (in Poland) and Janowska Road camp (in Ukraine) with regard to the fate of the Jewish community (1971 Vol. 11, 614-15). The Encyclopedia Judaica entry for Kiev does not mention the deportation of members of the Jewish community to any particular camp; rather, it discusses mass executions of members of the Jewish community at the ravine of Babi Yar near Kiev throughout the period of the German occupation (1971 Vol. 10, 995).
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia entry for Ukraine does not mention the deportation of Jews from Ukraine to concentration camps in other parts of German-occupied Europe; rather, it mentions massacres of Jews in Ukraine, including over 50,000 in Kiev alone, by "Nazi machine gun troops" (1969, 339) The same source adds that a "concentration camp was set up at Transnistria, in the Ukraine, to which Jews were deported from Bucovina, Bessarabia and Transylvania, and other districts," and that in October 1942 "large numbers of Jews were deported from Limbourg, Liège and Antwerp, Belgium, to the Ukraine (ibid.).
The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust speaks of the Western Ukrainian district of Transnistria primarily as a place to which Jews were deported from Romania (1990, 1474). However, the Belzec concentration camp is mentioned in the context of the Romanian government's refusal "to go along with the German plan for deporting all the Jews of Romania to the Belzec extermination camp" (ibid.), and subsequent 13 October 1942 decision to stop the deportation of Jews from Romania to Transnistria (ibid.). The article states that Jews from the Odessa area were sent to Bogdanovka, Akhmetchetka, and Domanevka camps, all of which were in Transnistria (ibid.).
According to the Historical Atlas of the Holocaust, the German occupation of eastern Europe, including Ukraine, was followed by the massacre of Jews in small communities, and in larger communities by the concentration of Jews in ghettoes (1996, 55). According to the Historical Atlas of the Holocaust,
By the end of 1943, most of the ghettoes of eastern Europe were destroyed. Most Jews were killed, either by Einsatzgruppen detachments or after their deportation to the killing centers in occupied Poland. The others were deported to forced-labor camps in the Baltic states and eastern Poland (ibid.).
The DIRB did not find any information on a concentration camp called "Fafelvald," but did find a reference to a "Sterbe- und Beburtenlager Pfaffenwald" in a German-language book on National Socialist (Nazi) camps (Schwarz 1990, 98-99, 234). The education director of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, who provided excerpts of the book to the DIRB, told the DIRB in a 23 July 1997 telephone interview that the reference is to "Pfaffenwald," a "dying- and birth-camp."
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 1990. Vol. 4. Edited by Israel Gutman. New York: Macmillan.
Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971. Vols. 8, 10, 11, 15. Jerusalem: Keter (Macmillan).
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. 23 July 1997. Telephone interview with the education director.
Schwarz, Gudrun. 1990. Die nationalsozialistischen Lager. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag.
United States Holocaust Historical Museum. 1996. Historical Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: Macmillan.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. 1969. Vol. 10. Edited by Isaac Landman. New York: Ktav.
