ORATOV
Pre-1941: Oratov, town and raion center, Vinnitsa oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1944: Oratow, Rayon center, Gebiet Monastyrischtsche, Generalkommissariat Shitomir; post-1991: Orativ, raion center, Vinnytsia oblast’, Ukraine
Oratov is located about 75 kilometers (47 miles) east of Vinnitsa. According to the 1939 census, 114 Jews lived in Oratov (4.7 percent of the total population). An additional 385 Jews lived in the villages of the raion.
Between June 30 and July 27, 1941, the date when the German armed forces occupied Oratov, part of the Jewish community was able to evacuate to the east. Some Jewish men were conscripted into the Red Army or enlisted voluntarily. Around 70 to 80 Jews remained in the town at the start of the occupation.
In July and August 1941, a German military commandant’s office (Ortskommandantur) ran the affairs of Oratov. In late October 1941, authority was passed to a German civil administration. Until its liberation in March 1944, Rayon Oratow was part of Gebiet Monastyrischtsche, within Generalkommissariat Shitomir. SA-Oberführer Werder became the Gebietskommissar.1 In Oratov itself, a German Gendarmerie post was created under whose command a Ukrainian police force served. Both played an active role in the measures taken against the Jewish population in the Rayon.
Shortly after the start of the occupation, the Ortskommandantur created a local administration and organized the registration and marking of the Jews. All Jews were obligated to wear white armbands with the Star of David. They were also ordered to do various kinds of heavy labor.
Sometime in the fall of 1941, an open Jewish ghetto was established in the town.2 Apparently Jews were resettled there from outlying villages as well. On October 15, 1942, when the ghetto was liquidated, 74 Jews were shot.3
In 1942, Jews living in the villages of the Rayon Oratow were also killed. In May 1942, 18 Jews were shot in the village of Staryi Zhivotov, 3 Jews were shot in the village of Chagov, and 38 Jews were shot in the village of Balabanovka.4
SOURCES
The Oratov ghetto is mentioned in Handbuch der Lager, Gefängnisse und Ghettos auf dem besetzten Territorium der Ukraine (1941–1944) (Kiev: Staatskomitee der Archiven der Ukraine, 2000), p. 45. Shmuel Spector and Geoffrey Wigoder, eds., The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem; New York: New York University Press, 2001), p. 942, dates the mass shooting of the Jews of Oratov on October 15, 1941 [sic].
Documents relating to the elimination of the Jews of Oratov can be found in the following archives: GARF (7021-54-1238); and DAVINO (R1683-1-10 and 13).
