Bar

Jews began to settle in Bar in the first half of the sixteenth century, making the community one of the oldest in Ukraine. The Jews of Bar suffered greatly during the uprising of Bogdan Chmelnitsky (1648-1649), and in the eighteenth century during the uprising of the Haidamaks. During the pogroms of the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), carried out by the White Army troops of Anton Denikin and the Ukrainian Army of Symon Petliura, several dozen Jews were murdered. In the Soviet period, a Yiddish school operated in Bar and the Jewish Yidishe poyer kolkhoz was established. The last great synagogues of Bar were closed by the Soviet authorities in the mid-1930s. During that time, most Jews were employed as office workers, artisans or in the three small, local factories. In 1939, the number of Jews in Bar stood at 3,869, 41 percent of the total population. The Germans occupied Bar on July 16, 1941, together with Romanian and Italian troops. In September 1941, Romanian-controlled Transnistria was established, with its border close to Bar. While Bar itself remained under German administration, the Bar railway station belonged to Transnistria. On December 20, 1941, three ghettos were established in the town; two of them later merged. In the autumn of 1941, Jews from neighboring localities were brought to Bar, together with deportees from Bessarabia and Bukovina, to join the local Jews in the ghettos. In August 1942, rumors of an impending murder operation spread through one of the ghettos. Several dozen families believed the reports and fled to Romanian-controlled Kopaigorod, where they survived. Most of the ghettos’ inhabitants were shot in two major murder operations in August and October 1942. The Red Army liberated Bar on March 24, 1944. On December 20, 1941, three ghettos surrounded by barbed-wire fences were established in the town (one was for artisans and their families), and a Judenrat and Jewish Order Service were appointed. Two of the ghettos eventually merged. Inhabitants suffered from starvation and overcrowding. The Germans provided no food; the only provisions available to residents were those obtained through barter and smuggling. The Jews were conscripted for forced labor in manufacture, agriculture and road repair. In the autumn of 1941, Jews from neighboring localities (including Balki) were brought to Bar along with deportees from Bukovina; most were artisans. In August 1942, rumors of an impending operation spread through one of the ghettos. Several dozen families who believed the rumors fled to Romanian-controlled Kopaigorod and survived. Most of the ghettos’ residents were murdered on August 20–21, 1942. In early September 1942, eighty young Jews from Murovannye Kurilovtsy were brought via the ghetto to the railroad station to unload coal; the ghetto was liquidated a short time later. Its residents were transported to a labor camp at Letichev, where most perished. On October 15, some 2,000 Jews from the second ghetto were shot dead. A number of Jews in the ghetto entrusted their children to Christians, but they did not all survive.