Balabanovka

Jews started to settle in Balabanovka in the second half of the 18th century. The Jewish population of Balabanovka started to grow rapidly after a rail line connecting the town of Uman with the northern Ukraine was constructed to pass the village. In 1897 433 Jews lived in Balabanovka, comprising 14 percent of the total population. Most of the Jews left Balabanovka during the civil war in Russia. In 1926 124 Jews lived in Balabanovka, comprising 4.7 percent of the total population. Balabanovka was occupied by German troops in late July 1941. Not many of the Jews were willing or able to leave the village before the arrival of the German troops. Those Jews who remained in the village were murdered in several operations by German security police and members of the SD and by local auxiliary police between 1941 and 1942. In December 1942, in the course of the apparently largest of these operations, 38 Balabanovka Jews of all ages and both sexes were shot to death. Balabanovka was liberated by the Red Army on March 10, 1944.