Borovka

Jews apparently started to settle in Borovka in the mid-18th century. Under the Soviets the occupational structure of Borovka Jews who had engaged mainly in trade and crqafts started to change. In 1929 a Jewish kolkhoz where many Borovka Jews then worked was established. Some local Jews also worked at the sugar factory. In the early 1920s a Yiddish school was opened in Borovka. In the early 1930s a Jewish rural council operated in Borovka. In the early 1930s, along with many others, the Jews of Borovka suffered from the Great Famine. During the 1920s and 1930s many Jews, especially the younger ones, left Borovka to seek employment and higher education. In 1939 Borovka's 296 Jews comprised 4.5 percent of the total population. After the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union a number of Jewish refugees from Bessarabia arrived in Borovka. Very few Jews succeeded in leaving the village before it was occupied by German and Romanian forces in July 1941. After the start of the occupation the Jews of Borovka were subjected to severe abuse by Romanian troops. Among other things, women were raped and Jewish property was looted. Most of Borovka's Jews were murdered in early August 1941 by members of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D. During that month German troops and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen murdered the Jews of Borovka who were discovered in hiding. Several Jews escaped to Chernevtsy. By the time that Borovka became part of Transnistria, the Romanian occupation zone, on September 1, 1941, there were no longer any Jews alive in the village. Borovka was liberated by the Red Army on March 17, 1944.