Dubova

Dubowa (Polish), Дубова, Dubova (Russian), דבובה (Yiddish) or Dubove(before Revolution)

Dubova is a village in Uman district of Cherkassy district. Population is 589 persons according to 2001 census. Before Revolution it was a shtetl of Kiev Guberniya.

The emblem of Dubova depicts a cross, oak and a Star of David in memory of the once numerous Jewish population.

Beginning

Jews lived in Dubova from the 16th century.

Jewish population of Dubova:

1863 – 770 (27%)

1897 – 1104 jews

1917 – 1115 jews



In 1863, the population consisted of 2,783 people, among whom were 2,555 Orthodox Christians and 770 Jews, as well as six Free Churchmen.

By the 1897 census, the Jewish community had increased to 1,104 people. There was a Jewish savings and loan association in town and two synagogues operated. The centre of the Chernobyl Hasidic branch was situated in Dubova. The Jews were engaged in trade and crafts, with about 170 Jewish families involved in the milling and selling of flour. There were no pogroms in 1905.

Dubova enterpreneurs in 1913:

Before WWI in Dubova lived 1110 Jews and 3500 Christians. There were 150 houses and 50 stores, 2 mills, 2 churns, carbonated water plant etc. S & L savings club was founded in 1912. Only 10% of Jews were craftsman, others were working in trade.

Pogroms

In 1918, the village population consisted of 1,110 Jews and 3,500 Christians. The first wave of pogroms began on May 13-14, 1919, when the peasants from nearby villages, armed with rifles and axes, attacked the town. Thirty-four Jews were killed, their houses looted and all the victims were stabbed with knives with shots heard only in the empty streets for entertainment purposes by the pogromists. The Jews hid in the house of a butcher, David Furman. At night, the rioters broke into the house and stabbed everybody.

The next day, a detachment of 40 people, led by an ex-convict Martin, attacked Dubova. The Jews tried to escape but most were caught and killed.

On June 17, the gang of Kazakov and Popov killed 15 people inside two hours with another eight people injured. Those hiding in the house of the local Jew Feldman did not manage to survive.

The Jews began to dig shelters in the ground, where they could hide with their families during the pogroms. But this helped only during small raids. During the last pogrom in summer 1919, in an underground shelter, nine large families were killed. Out of the large Jewish community, about 25 people remained alive. They fled to Uman and Golovanovsk. Moshe Kolesnik stayed in Dubova and collected and buried the dead before also moving with his family to Golovanovsk.

In Kiev Archiv I find pogrom testimony of David Moishevich Rabinovich, he gave it in Odessa in early 1920’s. According to this document there were 5 pogroms in Dubova:

– 1st pogrom performed by local peasants after agitation of some local with surname Bryshko: take place at 10-15 May 1919, there were 9 killed Jews

– 2nd pogrom was organized by Kozakov gang, Jews payed indemnity in 20,000 roubles

– 3d pogrom: Jews payed indemnity in 15,000 roubles

– 4th pogrom: it happened in day before Yom Kippur and was organized by gang in 200 persons, during 3 days were killed 800 Jews among 900 Jews in shtetl, among them was killed Rabbi Berdichevskiy 90 years old.Bandits live alive only 25 jews (3 smiths and wheel-master with families). Pogrom victims were burried in clay pit.

– 5th porgom: Kozakov’s gang killed last 10 Jews in Shtetl.

After the pogroms, the peasants pulled down Jewish homes, ploughed the land and planted fields. The shtetl was wiped off the face of the earth. The locals call Dubova a “dead Jewish shtetl”. In the district called Glinische, where the Jewish settlements used to be, the ashes of Jews, killed during the riots, are buried.

In 1920 there was 30 houses, 5 stores and no Jews.

Description of pogroms in Dubove from the book “Massacre scroll”:

Genealogy

In Kiev Oblast Archiv (Fond 3050/1/49) I find 3 lists of pogrom victims:

– aprox. 40 persons

– list of 236 names which was provied by Talne Rabbi

– list of 228 names

Some names mention in 2-3 lists. Most common surnames are: Polevoy, Pasternak, Shapiro, Kvitko, Koretckiy, Spivak.

In 1926 Rochl Feigenberg (1885-1972) published a book “Chronicle of a dead city” in Warsaw, it was dedicated to the Dubova pogrom victims (orifinal Yiddish name of the books is “A pinkes fun a toyter shtot” and it was republished in Russian in Linenigrad at 1928).

In 2010 there was open a monument in the honor of pogrom victims but inscription is very indistinct. Any word about nationality of killed people, any words that local Ukrainians killed their 800 Jewish neighbours…

Places

The house of a Jew Rabinovich has been reserved. I don’t know exect location…

First Jewish Cemetery

Located near the Yatran’ river, on a hill at the outskirts of the village. Drive out from the central square of the village. Local Jews used the cemetery until 1919, when due to the pogroms, the community almost ceased to exist. It is only 4 gravestones were found there by Lo-Tishkah expedition in 2010.

Second Jewish Cemetery

The cemetery is located to the right from the entrance to the village. It has been turned into an agricultural field. The cemetery had been used by the local Jews until 1919, when the community was almost totally destroyed because of the pogroms. It is only 2 gravestones were found there by Lo-Tishkah expedition in 2010.

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