The largest cities of Zakarpattia during
the Second World War
Khust
It was in Khust that the tragedies of the Second World War began. On March 15, 1939, a historic meeting was held regarding the declaration of independence of Carpathian Ukraine, which was the beginning of the end.
The battle on Krasne Pole which was described by Vasyl Filonovych, a lieutenant colonel of the UNR army, as "Here the new Carpathian Kruty rose" really became a repetition of the feat of the heroes of the Kruty.
The military confrontation ended with the execution of the young seminarians by the Hungarian army. On March 17, most of the territory of Carpathian Ukraine was occupied by Hungarian troops.
There was a synagogue in Khust, as well as in other cities of Transcarpathia. It is still functioning, even though it was built in 1878 and survived the horrors of the Second World War. From 1939 to 1944, the personal belongings of Jews deported to concentration camps were kept there. Almost 11,000 Jews were deported from Khust.
During the Soviet regime, they wanted to convert the synagogue for the needs of a shoe factory. But the community insisted on its preservation - Jewish women stood guard near the building to prevent vandals from entering.
Mukachevo
On the eve of the Second World War, Mukachevo was the center of the Hasids. Data show that by 1938, approximately 30,000 Jews lived in the city. Then it was 75% of the population.
There were 30 synagogues in Mukachevo, the first of which was founded in the 18th century. Educational institutions for Jews were actively opened and operated.
The situation worsened every day since the beginning of the Second World War. In 1944, two ghettos were already operating here, and tens of thousands of Jews were deported to camps (mostly to Auschwitz and Treblinka).
With the arrival of Soviet power, the persecution of the Jewish population continued: synagogues were closed. Most of the Jews later left for Israel.
Rakhiv
The so-called Hutsul Paris - Rakhiv - did not escape the tragedies of the war either. Even before the beginning of the Second World War, a considerable percentage of the population was Hungarians, although there were many Jews here. Most of them lived in the city center, where they engaged in trade.
Ethnographic evidence shows that until 1939 people lived relatively peacefully. With the arrival of the Hungarian occupation authorities, the school was transformed into Hungarian barracks and stables. Instead, Jews were taken to ghettos in other cities, and then to concentration camps.
The center of Rakhov began to change. Jewish buildings (some even note the existence of a synagogue) were closed, and after 1944, they were rebuilt into city council buildings and shops. To this day, in Rakhiv, as in many other cities of Transcarpathia, there is a preserved Jewish cemetery, which is looked after by both residents and the Jewish community.
