2 Execution site(s)
Maria S., born in 1928: "Many Romanian Jews, including men, women, and children, were brought to Udych and confined in the canteen of the sugar factory under the supervision of local policemen, effectively establishing a Jewish labor camp. The canteen building was spacious, accommodating the Jews in bunk beds. They were forced to work on road construction work, similar to the local Ukrainians. Anyone who succumbed to starvation or exhaustion in the camp was placed on carts and transported to a ravine near the pond for burial. However, the camp’s existence was brief, lasting only a few months. One day, as the cold weather set in, German trucks arrived during the night, and the remaining Jews were taken away. They never returned to the village." (Testimony N°YIU1120U, interviewed in Udych, on December 23, 2010)
Udych, situated approximately 140 km (87 mi) southeast of Vinnytsia, had a sparse Jewish population before the war, alongside Orthodox and Catholic residents. While agriculture formed the backbone of the local economy, with many working in the collective farm, the Jewish inhabitants were involved in various professions such as trade, crafts, and engineering, with some holding key positions in the local sugar factory. Additionally, a substantial Jewish community existed in the nearby town of Teplyk, approximately 15 km (9 mi) northwest of Udych.
As the Second World War approached, some of Udych’s Jewish residents managed to evacuate to eastern regions.
Udych came under German occupation at the end of July 1941. After a brief period of military control, the town transitioned to German civil administration in autumn 1941, during which a German gendarmerie post and a Ukrainian police unit were established.
According to accounts from local witnesses, approximately one year after the occupation began, around the summer of 1942, a Jewish labor camp was established in the sugar factory canteen in Udych. This camp housed up to 200 Jewish men, women, and children from the Romanian-occupied zone. Encircled by a barbed-wire fence and overseen by local police, the camp inmates were forced to work on the DGIV highway, connecting Vinnytsia to Uman. Severe living conditions, marked by food shortages and exhaustion, resulted in the deaths of many camp residents. Their bodies were transported by carts to a nearby ravine near the pond for burial. Several months later, as cold weather set in, the remaining inmates were taken away in German trucks that arrived during the night, and they were never seen again in the village. The burial site of these Jewish camp inmates remains unmarked to this day.
Following the liquidation of the labor camp, in winter 1943, two local Jews, Koghan M.A. and Stein Sophia, along with one Ukrainian man, were executed and disposed of in a well located in Udych. A monument has since been erected in their memory.
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