During World War II, both the Synagogue and its nearby water well were within the Ghetto.
Expelled during the Soviet occupation of Volchin, Sobelman --the richest man in Volchin-- and his wife returned to Volchin after the Germans took over again. As we heard during our 1997 visit from some Belarusian goyim, they were placed in the Ghetto, in a stable somwhere. One night Mrs. Sobelman sneaked out to the Pulva River (the Tych) and drowned herself . Her body was washed down to the Tzuprik windmill at the south of Volchin. She was buried in the Volchin cemetery. Her husband sat in the corner of the synagogue. inside the ghetto, He refused to eat or drink until he died of hunger and heartbreak.
In the Yizkor Booklet of 1948, in a letter of January 12st 1948, Volchin survivor Mendl Refkovske writes that the Volchin ghetto was instituted at the start of the Nazi occupation. (The truth of the matter is that it was erected at least 3 months after the occupation began.) The letter notes that the guard commander of the Ghetto was an Ukrainian named Malote [Maluta] who abused the Jews at every opportunity:
...their fate fell into the hands of the infamous Ukrainian, Theodore Maluta. Just one glance at the animalistic features of this human being was enough to cause all blood to freeze in fear. This obese ruffian with his leaden pistol [probably: lead-tipped lash], which never left his hand, inflicted injury on Jewish bodies at every opportunity.
The name Malote also appears as well in the testimony of the Motikele Chief-of-Polise, Timofyevitz: “...ruler of Motikele District -- Malyota and his assistant Ivan Plotnie.” I thought that this person also supervised over the Police in Volchin, as he did in Motikele, abusing Jews in the Volchin ghetto from time to time so that the local guards would learn required behavior by example.
