Kolodyanka

On the eve of World War II the Jewish population of Kolodyanka consisted of seven families. The village was occupied by German troops in early July 1941. Shortly afterward, the Jewish men of the village were killed. Several days later the remaining Jews of Kolodyanka were forced into several houses that became a ghetto. The Jews from the nearby villages of Kozhushki, Ternovka, and others were also put into the ghetto. The total number of ghetto inmates was, according to various sources, between 250 and 400. The area of the ghetto was not surrounded by barbed wire and probably was not guarded. Each day the adult Jews wene taken out to dig a large pit in a grove located in the field opposite the local railway station. The children remained in the ghetto to take care of the even younger ones. The ghetto inmates were shot to death in late August - September 1941. The village was liberated by the Red Army in the early January 1944.