Dubrovytsia (Ukrainian: Дубровиця, IPA: [dʊbˈrɔwɪtsʲɐ]; Polish: Dąbrowica; Yiddish: דומברוביצא) is a city in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine.

In 19th century Dąbrowica was a notable centre of commerce, with a number of factories and manufactures serving the local market.

The town was owned by a Polish noble family, the Pliater brothers, who were murdered by the farmers as part of the communist revolution on November 22, 1918.

A large Jewish population thrived at the center of town, owning many of the stores and houses there, in what was called the Dombrovitza shtetl.

Until 1917 the 83rd division of the Polish Democratic Republic stayed in town, expelling many of the Jews from their homes, and annexing their houses.

[2]: 85 In March 1918 the remnants of the 83rd division of the now deserted army joined forces with Polish militants and began rampaging and killing Jews in the villages around Dubrovytzia.

A German army unit took over the town, although Germany had signed a peace agreement and the war supposedly had ended.

[2]: 96 In 1937 on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, the Polish establishment backed by the police forced the Jews to paint the house fronts and rebuild public parts of the fences within 48 hours.

[2]: 69–72 In September 1939, with the Soviet takeover, trainloads of refugees reached the town, and were again accommodated in the Jews homes and the synagogues.

Under the Ukrainian police, the Jews were sent to forced labor, working with manure, and cutting wood, while their property and possessions were taken from them.

[2]: 188–191 At some time during that year more than 300 Jewish women with their children reached the town from Dwid-Gordok, after the men were all taken to dig defense trenches.

On November 6, 1941, two woman survivors of the massacre of 17,000 Jews at Rowno (Rivne, Ukraine), crawling away after being buried alive, reached Dąbrowica.

During the deportation, the neighbors snatched the Jews' belongings and openly told the refugees that they would not abide by property agreements that they had made with them.

[2]: 199 Evidence has been gathered that psychologists and other experts were sent to the town, to see to it that the Jewish population complies with the German decrees without revolting.

The main synagogue was opened for prayer on the first day of the holiday, and the Jewish speaker for the German rule explained that it is only for a head count.

Christian posters called for the demise of the Jews who were the cause for the fall of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Chmelnitzki and Petliura.

Testimony about the massacre of 65 Jewish slave workers from Refalovka at Chestorisk, shot after the first train crossed the bridge they had just finished building, reaches Dubrowica, and about the mass murder of 500 Jews the remnants of Ghetto Pohost, rounded up at Moroczna.

The unit of Ukrainian militia in Dubrowica had participated in the massacre of Jews at Rozhichecz, Kobel and other places, two weeks before.

One week before, some of the policemen intended to shoot Jewish forced labor workers coming back from the forest.

The policemen were supposedly punished by the German commander, giving the Jews an extra false sense of security.

[2]: 195 After a week of enlisting, on Tuesday evening, the 25 of August 1942, a night of almost full moon, three days of the Dubrovytsa Jews' deportation began.

The (non-Jewish) chief of the Ukrainian militia spoke Yiddish, quoted verses from the bible, and told the Jews that they would receive "the full redemption", and would be transferred to a larger and better Ghetto.

Their raids were done at night, and caused the Germans to believe that a large armed Jewish force of communist Partisans was acting nearby.

A group of Jews had cold water poured on them and after freezing to death were set on the main road, standing there for over a month.