1 Killing site(s)
Oksana H., born in 1932: “At noon, all local Jews of all ages and sex were gathered at the center of the village, near the Klub [Cultural House]. Before, this building used to belong to a Polish noble [named] Mankovsky. All the Jews were gathered under the pretext of future displacement to Israel. I wanted to save my friend Sonia, to make her stay with us. So, I went [to] where they were gathered and found her. But her mother refused to leave her with me, saying that she [preferred] her daughter to stay with her. Once all the Jews were gathered, they were taken to two hospital buildings where they were locked up. I saw them leaving. They were marched [and] escorted by Germans who were on horseback. Once they left, I came back home.” (Witness n°2804, interviewed in Borivka on October 9, 2020)
“[…] During the occupation of Borovka, on August 10, 1941, my daughter Fanya Kosyanskaya saw a vehicle with Germans arriving in the village. My daughter told me that the Germans had ordered the Jewish population to assemble, 230 of whom appeared. At the same time, four people were taken to dig graves. The number of people mentioned above [about 230] were driven through the village and taken to the village’s outskirts, where they were shot by the Germans.” [Deposition given by [illegible] Kosyanskiy, born in 1883, to the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK) on November 27, 1944; GARF : 7021-54-1255]
Borivka is located 99km (61mi) southwest of Vinnytsia. The first record of Jews living in the town goes back to the mid-18th century. The town was home to Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. The latter lived mainly in the center of Borivka and were engaged in small-scale trade or handcrafts. According to the local villagers, there was no synagogue in the town. In the early 1920s, a Yiddish school was opened, but it was closed in the 1930s. In 1929, a Jewish kolkhoz [collective farm] was created and many Jews worked there. As a result of the Great Famine that ravaged the area in 1932-1933, many Jews left Borivka and moved to bigger towns. On the eve of the Second World War, only 4.5% of the total population was Jewish. Many refugees from Chernivtsi and Mohyliv-Podilskiy arrived in Borivka and stayed there after the war broke out.
Borivka was first occupied by Romanian forces and then by the Germans in mid-July 1941. Only a few Jews of high status managed to evacuate before the occupation. On September 1st, the village was taken over by the Romanians and became part of Transnistria. By that time, the remaining Jews in Borivka were murdered in several Aktions.
The majority of Jews were murdered during the first Aktion conducted on August 10, 1941, by the members of Einzatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D. On this day, about 250 Jews were gathered at the local Klub [Cultural House]. They were then taken to the area near the Orthodox cemetery and a hospital, which was on the outskirts of the village. Before the execution, four Jews were selected and taken to dig a pit. According to an eyewitness who watched the execution from about 150m away, the pit was 30-40m long and 2m deep. The Jews were shot in groups of ten by two Germans who sat at a table. The Jews who managed to hide but were found afterwards were killed during August 1941.
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