1 Killing site(s)
Petro K., born in 1935: “Before the occupation there were several battles between the Soviets and the Germans. The church was bombed, and many houses were burned down. My house was among the ones that were destroyed. Shortly after the retreat of the Soviet troops, the Germans arrived. They stayed here for two or three days and then they moved forward leaving the power to the Romanians, who remained here until the end of the war. A local administration was set up and headed by a Romanian. There were four Romanian gendarmes who were stationed here on permanent bases. Besides the gendarmes, a local police was created as well.” (Witness n°2786U, interviewed in Bondurivka, on September 10, 2021)
Bondurivka is located 135km (84mi) southeast of Vinnytsia. According to the residents interviewed by Yahad-In Unum, Bondurivka was home to Ukrainians; no Jews lived in the village before the war. There were four kolkhozes [collective farms] in the village. Agriculture was the main occupation. The Jews lived in the nearby town of Bershad, located about 26km (16mi) away.
Bondurivka was occupied by German and Romanian forces at the end of July 1941. The village remained under Romanian control and became part of Transnistria in September 1941. Even though the village wasn’t mentioned in the archives, Yahad - In Unum field research and witness interviews helped us establish that a temporary ghetto for the Jewish refugees was created there during the occupation. In the fall of 1941, hundreds of Jews - men, women, and children - were transferred from Bessarabia and Bukovina and placed in two different buildings of the village, in the pigsty and the cowsheds (or oxen house), that belonged to the collective farm. The buildings were not fenced in, although it was forbidden for the Jewish people to leave the territory. The area was guarded by policemen. Many Jews (the exact number was not established) died from starvation, bad treatment and disease while confined in the ghetto. They were buried in the pit located close to the river. There is no memorial at the site today.
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