Rosokhach | Ternopil

Rosokhach is located 90 km (56mi) south of Ternopil. Little is known about the Jewish community in Rosokhach. It was rather small compared to the community in the nearby town of Tovste, located 19 km (12mi) south and Chortkiv, located 10 km (6mi) northwest. According to local testimonies recorded by Yahad, eight Jewish families lived in the village, including Esther, Dudio, Kielman, Ionna who owned a mill. The Jews lived in the center and mainly owned shops, but some of them were artisans. The majority of the population was Ukrainian and Polish. The villagers worked for a rich Pole who owned the land and the filwarok (Polish manor). When the village was taken over by Soviet Union in September 1939, a collective farm was created. Fearing for their lives, most of the Jews left the village.

Rosokhach was occupied by German and Hungarian troops on July 7, 1941. According to the Soviet archives a labor camp was created in the former Polish manor in 1943. A group of about a hundred Jews or more, men, women, children, were taken there and placed in some barracks located on the former Polish property. It wasn’t fenced and the Jews could leave its territory freely. The inmates were subjected to forced labor in the fields where potatoes, wheat and barley were cultivated. The local population, Ukrainians, and Poles, also worked in the fields. Part of the harvest was given to the working locals, part to the Jews, and part to replant for the following year. There is no exact date when the Jewish inmates from the camp were killed, but according to a testimony recorded by Yahad, it might have been conducted November 1943. On the day of the Aktion, the camp was surrounded by Germans, and the inmates were shot dead. Their bodies were thrown in a ravine located nearby.