Bobrovitsa

Jews moved to Bobrovitsa in the second half of the 19th century. In September 1919 units of Denikin's White Russian Army carried out a pogrom in Bobrovitsa, killing four Jews. In 1920 the Romashko gang killed several local Jews. The Jews in Bobrovitsa were mostly artisans; others were employed in one of the village's 28 small enterprises and one large sugar factory. In 1939 122 Jews lived in Bobrovitsa, comprising 1.7 percent of the total population. Bobrovitsa was occupied by German troops on September 15, 1941. Because the village was located on the Kiev-Moscow highway many Jewish families succeeded in leaving Bobrovitsa in time. During the German occupation of Bobrovitsa the remaining Jews, numbering at least 11, and some Jews from nearby villages were murdered by Germans, while other Jews were shot in the Nezhin prison. Bobrovitsa was liberated on September 9, 1943 by a partisan unit commanded by Bovkun. On September 18 (or September 20), 1943 the Red Army took control of the town.