Borovaya

In the late 19th century about ten Jews lived in the village. Only during the first half of the 20th century did the Jewish population of the village start to grow significantly. Most of Borovaya's Jews were small scale merchants or craftsmen. They dominated the wood trade in the village. The Jews of Borovaya suffered from the violence of the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. In September 1919 White Army troops of Anton Denikin staged a pogrom in Borovaya. In 1939 the village's 176 Jews comprised 4.3 percent of the total population. Apparently most of Borovaya's Jews succeeded in leaving before July 30, 1941, when the village was occupied by German troops. The Jews who remained were persecuted from the first days of the occupation by Ukrainian auxiliary police. The Jews were registered and forced to wear a white armband with a black Star of David. The local police chief used Jewish laborers for his personal needs and humiliated them. In the fall of 1941 about 40 Jews from the village were supposedly being transported by the Ukrainian auxiliary police to Vasilkov, the center of the neighboring county, but according to several testimonies were murdered on the way. Borovaya was liberated by the Red Army on November 6, 1943.