Chudnov

The first reference to Jews living Chudnov dates to 1648, when they escaped from the town during the Chmelnitskiy uprising. In 1756 Chudnov residents attacked Jews who sought refuge in the town from the Haidamaks. In 1897 its 4,491 local comprised 80 percent of the total population of Chudnov. On May 1, 1903 200 local Jews participated in a strike organized by the Bund. Two years later, on May 1, 1905, 200 Bund members arranged a meeting but the local police spread the rumor that the Jews intended to blow up churches in revenge for the pogroms in Kishinev and Gomel, and threatened the Jews with another pogrom in the event that they held a demonstration. In 1910 there were a Talmud Torah school and three private vocational schools (two of them for girls) in Chudnov. During the Russian civil war the Jewish population suffered from a pogrom. Under the Soviets Chudnov had a Yiddish school and a Jewish council that conducted its affairs in Yiddish. In 1939 the town's 2,506 Jews constituted 46 percent of the total population. Chudnov was occupied by the Germans on July 7, 1941. While the entire population was registered, separate lists were kept for the Jews. The Jews were concentrated under very harsh conditions of overcrowding in an open ghetto that was located in the poorest quarter of the town. They were required to wear a yellow Star of David on their sleeves. The Jews were also made to perform forced labour and suffered from cruel abuse at the hands of their supervisors. In early September 1941 Rabbi Yosef Mosuk and two elderly Jewish women were murdered after being publicly tortured before the entire population of the town. The Jews of Chudnov, along with Jews from nearby villages, were killed in three major murder operations between September and November 1941. The Red army liberated Chudnov on January 6, 1944. In the 1990s a trial was conducted of several former policemen of Chudnov who were accused of collaborating with the Germans.