Remember Jewish Ustilug / Ustyluh

Pronunciation: Austiluh

HISTORY OF JEWISH USTILUG

Ustilug (Ustyluh), pronounced Austila, is a town in Wolyn district situated on the Luga and Bug Rivers. It also borders the Lublin province of Poland and is now in the Ukraine. The Jewish community was established sometime before the 17th century. In time, despite its small size, Ustilug became a key depot for exporting grain and lumber. Jews comprised approximately 90% of the population of Ustilug by the middle of the 19th century.

There were 12 synagogues in Ustilug which included shuls from the Hassidim of Belz, Trisk, Neschiz, Radzyn, Ruzhin, and others. There was a modern cheder in Ustilug, founded in 1905. The population in 1744 was 297 Jews, but rose to 455 when including nearby villages. The Jewish population in 1860 was 1,424 out of 1,666 in the town total. And by 1921 the general town population was 3,728, of whom 2,723 were of the Mosaic faith. In 1939, Uscilug's Jewish population reached 3,200 residents.

Jews in Ustilug were involved with small-scale commerce and trades. Two Hebrew schools were established in Ustilug during the 1920s, one from the Tarbut network and the second from the religious Zionist Yavneh. Similarly, a Hebrew kindergarten was founded, as were two libraries, one Yiddish and one Hebrew, which were established during the time of Austrian rule. They grew and became
centers of cultural life in the town and included lectures, drama clubs and more.

USTILUG DURING THE HOLOCAUST

During the German occupation of Poland in September of 1939, Ustilug was a border city between the Soviet Union and the Generalgouvernement (occupied Poland) under the control of the Nazis. The Soviet government imposed restrictions of movement, and a third of the Jews of Ustilug were uprooted from their city. Most of them moved to Ludmir. Ustilug was bombarded and shelled heavily on the morning of June 22, 1941, the day of the outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and Germany. Ustilug was conquered by the German Army toward evening of that day. The Germans quickly began to snatch Jews for forced labor. Jewish residents were put to work fixing the bridge over the Bug River, cleaning the ruins, and loading ammunition and military provisions at the railway station.

At the end of July 1941, the Germans appointed a Judenrat and set up a Jewish police force. Nearly 900 people of the town intelligencia and notables were imprisoned at the end of October 1941 and taken to be killed. After that, groups of youths were taken from time to time and shot in the valley next to the Jewish cemetery.

A ghetto was set up in March 1942, and close to 2,000 Jews were imprisoned there. The crowding was very great, with up to 20 people in a single room. Hunger persisted in the ghetto, and epidemics -- especially typhoid fever -- broke out due to the crowding.
The remaining Jews of Ustilug were transferred to the Ludmir Ghetto between September 1 and 15, 1942, where they were murdered along with the local Jews in pits that had been prepared in the village of Piatydnie. A small group of workers who remained to work in the military camp were liquidated at the end of the winter of 1943.

Uscilug natives Bela Frajman Cuker and her husband Avram Cuker were partisans in the Kampanya Peitrosha brigade. Both were killed by a murderous gang.

Please review the site content below. Zachor - We Remember.
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[Surnames] [YIVO Video Archives: Uscilug]
[Ustilug Yizkor Book (English)]
[Ustilug Yizkor Book 1 (Hebrew)] [Ustilug Yizkor Book 2 (Hebrew)]
Remembering the Victims of the Piatidin Pogrom
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City of Ustilug:

- Coming Soon

Holocaust Survivors of Ustilug:

- Shlomo Dagan
- Mosheh Krikser
- Chawa Lev
- Szymona Rubinsten

Rabbis of Ustilug:

- Rabbi Yosef Shpira (Szapiro), early 19th century
- Rabbi Pinchas Tabarski

Remember Your Family:

- The DNA Shoah Project: Connecting Descendants
- Central Judaica Database - Museum of History of Polish Jews
- Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors on Facebook
- Guide to the YIVO Archives
- Holocaust News/Events from Generations of the Shoah Int'l
- Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database
- JewishGen Family Finder
- JewishGen Holocaust Database
- JRI-Poland: Search for Your Family
- Museum of History of Polish Jews Introduction
- Yad Vashem: Search for Your Family
- Yad Vashem: Submit Names of Your Family Members
- Yad Vashem Requests Photos of Shoah Survivors and Families


CONTACTS

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