Volodarka

Jews apparently began living in Volodarka in the late 17th or early 18th century. During the second half of the 18th century the Jews of Volodarka suffered greatly from attacks of the Haidamaks. About half of the town’s Jews abandoned it during this period. In 1897 the town's 2,079 Jews comprised 45.3 percent of the total population. Traditionally most Volodarka Jews engaged in trade, leasing, or crafts. Volodarka's Jews suffered greatly from the violence of the revolutionary years and civil war in Russia. Scores of the town’s Jews lost their lives in a series of pogroms carried out between 1917 and 1919 by various warring parties and armed gangs. A considerable amount of Jewish property was looted during these pogroms. Most of the Jews abandoned the town at this time, seeking refuge in larger towns and in the cities. Only some Jews returned to Volodarka when the situation stabilized. Most of the returnees, however, left Volodarka again in the 1920s and 1930s in search of educational or vocational opportunities in larger towns and cities or to engage in agriculture in southern Ukraine. In 1939 only 135 Jews were living in the entire Volodarka County. More than half lived in Volodarka itself, where they comprised about 2 percent of the total population. German forces occupied Volodarka on July 14, 1941. The Jews were forced to wear yellow armbands and to perform various types of hard or demeaning labor. A very short time after the start of the occupation about 10 Volodarka Jews were shot in the town. In the fall of 1941 several Jewish families from Volodarka were deported to Belaya Tserkov and murdered there. In the second half of 1941, or in 1942, about 200 Jews from the surrounding villages were brought to Volodarka and shot to death. Volodarka was liberated by the Red Army on December 31, 1943.