Volodarka

Volodarka, an urban settlement, district capital in the Kyiv region.
In 1793, after the second division of Poland, Volodarka became part of the Russian Empire.
In the 19th and early 20th century, Volodarka was a shtetl in Skvirsky county, Kyiv province.
This article was translated by Maria Mafter.
Jews lived in Volodarka from the 17th century. In 1750 the Jewish community was destroyed by the Haidamaks, and in 1768 the Jewish population was again plundered by the Haidamaks.
In 1841 L. Abramovich founded a cloth factory. In 1863 there was a synagogue. In 1912 there was a Jewish savings and loan partnership.
At the beginning of WWI, about 2,000 Jews and 5,000 Christians lived in the town. There were about 400 Jewish houses and 200 shops, five industrial enterprises owned by Jews, and several synagogues.
Volodarka entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913:
1765 – 475 Jews
1847 — 1585 Jews
1863 – 1744 Jews
1897 — 2079 (45%)
1989 – 7 Jews
Volodarka ceased to exist as a Jewish town during the Civil War of 1917-1920, when, as a result of numerous pogroms, Jews were forced to flee to other places.
The town was destroyed in 1919-1920 as a result of four pogroms:
The first was arranged by the Tyutyunik gang before Pesach 1919; as a result, 20 Jews were killed, 3 wounded, 10 raped, and all property was looted.
The second was arranged by the Sokolov gang — 15 Jews were killed, 10 seriously wounded and 50 raped.
The third was arranged by the Sokolov gang on July 9, 1919; as a result, the town was burned down and only those who could escape were saved. 73 people were killed – elderly people, women and children.
An unknown gang entered the town on May 8, 1920 and killed everyone in the local hospital. 40 people died.
In the remaining houses, peasants broke down the windows and doors, removed the tin from the roofs, and took it all home.
Out of 400 Jewish houses, only twenty-nine remained relatively intact.
Over 1500 Jews of Volodarka escaped to Bila Tserkva. Though not a district capital, it became a hub for Jews fleeing pogroms in smaller towns and villages. People fled there from Stavishch, Tetiev, Volodarka, and other towns and villages. As a result, the Jewish population of Bila Tserkva nearly doubled in size. Meanwhile, the number of houses remained the same. As a result, almost all the refugees from Volodarka died in a typhoid epidemic that arose as a consequence of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
More information about pogroms in Volodarka can be found here.
After the Soviet Union was established, the Jews of Volodarka started leaving en masse. In 1926, thirty-six of them organized a kolhoz in the Kherson district.
On July 14, 1941, ten Jews were shot in Volodarka, followed by two more on July 16. Jews were brought to Volodarka for execution from other towns. Altogether, around 200 people were killed. The exact location of the mass murder is unknown, but we can presume that it was the same place where the Nazis shot communists and partisans. Now there’s a memorial in that spot, but no mention of Jews.
Memorial in the center of Volodarka:
I wasn’t able to find any information about Jews living in Volodarka post-WWII. I visited the town in 2022, searching for some trace of the presence of Jews. There were no old buildings still standing; neither was I able to locate the Jewish cemetery.
Sometime in the 2000s, the local authorities allowed a memorial to Volodarka’s Jews to be erected in the non-Jewish cemetery. This memorial is the only sign that Jews ever lived in Volodarka.
Genealogy
Old Jewish cemetery
The cemetery was demolished in the 1920s during Soviet collectivization and the site was overbuilt.
New Jewish cemetery
The cemetery was demolished in the 1950s and a brick factory was built on its site.
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