Vinnytsia - History

History

Vinnytsia has been an important trade and political center since the fourteenth century, when Fedir Koriatowicz, the nephew of the Lithuanian Duke Olgerd, built a fortress (1363) against Tatar raiders on the banks of the Southern Bug. From that time on, the town became a factor in ongoing disputes between Lithuania, Tatars (who burnt the fortress in 1580), Poland, Turkey (which ruled the city and region from 1672 to 1699), Cossacks and eventually Russia, which annexed the city and region following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. Russia moved to expunge the Roman Catholic religion – Catholic churches in the city (including what is now the Transfiguration Cathedral) were converted to Russian Orthodox churches.

Victim's graves from the Vinnytsia massacre during the Stalinist repression of 1937–1938 were exhumed by the invading Germans in 1943.

Adolf Hitler sited his easternmost headquarters Führerhauptquartier Werwolf near the town and spent a number of weeks there in 1942 and early 1943.

Nazi atrocities were committed in and near Vinnytsia by Einsatzgruppe D. Estimates of the number of victims run as high as 28,000. This included the virtual extinction of the town's large Jewish population. One infamous photo, The Last Jew of Vinnytsia, shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D about to execute a Jew kneeling before a mass grave. The text The Last Jew of Vinnytsia was written on the back of the photograph, which was found in a photo album belonging to a German soldier.