BOGODUKHOV
[End Page 1763] Pre-1941: Bogodukhov, town and raion center, Khar’kov oblast’, Ukrainian SSR; 1941–1943: Bogoduchow, Rear Area, Army Group South (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd); post-1991: Bogoduhiv, Khar’kiv oblast’, Ukraine
Bogodukhov is located 56 kilometers (35 miles) west-northwest of Khar’kov. In 1920, the Jewish population was 288, and by 1939, it had declined to 136.
German armed forces of the 6th Army occupied the town in mid-October 1941. Soon after this date, all the Jews remaining in Bogodukhov were rounded up and forced to live together in one building, creating a de facto ghetto. The Jews suffered from starvation and only received 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of bread per day. They were obliged to wear armbands, and those Jews fit for work were taken to perform forced labor.
On June 23, 1942, the Germans escorted the remaining Jews (34 or 35 people) into a nearby forest and shot them. Among those killed were a number of children.1
SOURCES
Published sources on the Jewish community of Bogodukhov include 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. 167; and Rossiiskaia Evreiskaia Entsiklopediia (Moscow: Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Jewish Encyclopedia Research Center, “Epos,” 2000), 4:150.
Information on the destruction of the Jews of Bogodukhov during the Holocaust can be found in the following archives: DA-KhkvO (3746-1-202, pp. 5 and reverse side); and USHMM (RG-22.016, folder 20 [TsGAMORF, 236-2675-42, p. 201]).
NOTES
1. TsGAMORF, 236-2675-42, p. 201; and DA-KhkvO, 3746-1-202, pp. 5 and reverse side. Spector and Wigoder, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust, p. 167, however, date the destruction of the Jews of Bogodukhov to November 1942.
