Located in the historical region of
Eastern Podolia, since 1870 Vapniarka has been known as a railroad station. In 1919 it was a site of
battles fought by the
Ukrainian People's Army and
Ukrainian Galician Army against
Bolsheviks and
Denikin's
White Army. During
World War II, following the start of
Operation Barbarossa, Vapniarka was administered by
Romania. From October 22, 1941, to March 1944, it was included in the region of
Transnistria and became the site for a
concentration camp for members of the
Romanian Jewish community. This succession of events formed a part of
The Holocaust in Romania. Today, Vapniarka serves as the final train destination for visitors traveling to villages in Tomashpilskyi and Yampilskyi
Raion of
Vinnytsia Oblast. From here, buses or private transportation are used to get to villages like
Busha,
Dzyhivka,
Olhopil,
Tomashpil, and
Sobolivka. Until 26 January 2024, Vapniarka was designated
urban-type settlement. On this day, a new law entered into force which abolished this status, and Vapniarka became a rural settlement.
World War II camp In October 1941, the Romanians established a detention camp in Vapniarka. (By that time, the 700
local Jewish inhabitants had fled or had been killed by the
Nazi German or Romanian troops. Many of them died; a Jew originally from Odessa died in Vapniarka in September 1942. In 1942, 150 Jews from
Bukovina were brought to Vapniarka; they included some refugees from Poland. from the Old Kingdom of Romania and southern Transylvania were also brought to the camp. A team of doctors among the inmates, led by Dr. Arthur Kessler of
Cernăuţi, reached the conclusion that the disease presented all the symptoms of
lathyrism, a
spastic paralysis caused by the
oxalyldiaminopropionic acid present in the pea fodder. Within a few weeks, the first symptoms of the disease appeared, affecting the
bone marrow of prisoners and causing paralysis. 54 Communists were taken to a prison in
Rîbnița, Transnistria, where they were killed in their cells by
SS men on March 19, 1944. A third group, which included most of the prisoners (565 persons), was moved to Romania in March 1944 and imprisoned in the camp for political prisoners in
Târgu Jiu, until after the
fall of the Antonescu government in August. For more information on the Holocaust in
Transnistria, including on the fate of the Jewish deportees from Romania, see
History of the Jews in Transnistria. ==Economy==