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Ghetto in Kharkov, Ukraine

According to the 1939 census, there were 130.2 thousand Jews in Kharkov, who accounted for 15.6% of the population. With the outbreak of war, the city's population increased to 1.5 million people due to refugees. 400 thousand of them managed to evacuate before the start of the occupation. Data on the proportion of Jews among those evacuated have not been preserved.

Kharkov was captured on October 24, 1941. In early November 1941, the Nazis created a Judenrat in the city. On November 22, 1941, the occupation authorities ordered the Jewish population to wear yellow armbands when going out into the street.

On December 5, 1941, the occupants registered the population of Kharkov. From each house, the house managers submitted two lists: all residents, except for Jews (non-Jews paid one ruble for registration) and Jews living in the house (paid 10 rubles for registration). According to German data, 10.2 thousand Kharkov Jews were registered.

On December 14, 1941, the military commandant of Kharkov issued an order for the resettlement of Jews and Roma in the ghetto within two days. It was created in the Losevo area in barracks at the Kharkov Transport Plant. The people who lived in the barracks were relocated by the Nazis to nearby houses.

When resettled in the ghetto, Jews were plundered. Up to 800 people lived in each barrack. The territory of the ghetto was guarded. The Nazis forbade going outside it at night on pain of death. The prisoners were not given food, and it was forbidden to exchange things for food in order to increase the percentage of natural deaths.

On December 26, 1941, the Nazis announced to the ghetto prisoners that everyone could go to work in the Poltava and Sumy regions. The condition for the move was the absence of personal belongings. About 500 prisoners of the ghetto, who expressed a desire to leave Kharkov, were put on trucks by the Nazis, taken to Drobitsky Yar, where pits had been previously dug, and they were shot.

The Nazis began mass liquidation actions in January 1942. The Nazis used "gasenvagens" - gas chamber machines. In addition, every day, 250-300 people were taken out of the ghetto in the direction of Drobitsky Yar, where they were shot. Children were thrown into ravines alive.

According to the State Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in the Occupied Territories, from 15 to 16 thousand people died in the Drobitsky Yar. Researchers estimate the number of Jews killed during the occupation of Kharkov up to 20 thousand people.