Raygorodok

Raygorodok is a viallge in Berdichev district, Zhernigov region.

In 19th -20th century, it was a shtetl of Berdichev uezd, Kiev gubernia.

Raygorodok, Zhitomir region, should not be confused with the village of Raygorod in Vinnitsa region. Both the settlements were shtetls with big Jewish communities.

Note: I have found almost no information on the Raigorod Jewish community.

According to the 1897 census, 2058 residents lived in Raygorodok where 946 Jews constited 45% of the total population.

In the southern outskirts of the village a market square and a synagogue used to make the center of the Jewish shtetl. Nowadays this territory remains almost undeveloped. It is right opposite the village council – a large vacant lot, which is crossed by the Berdichev-Vinnitsa highway.

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Former center of the shtetl

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Former center of the shtetl

In 1926, 665 Jews lived in Raygorodok (28% of the total population)

I did not find information about the Jewish community of Raygorod between WWI and WWII, but can assume that about 200 Jews lived in the village before German invasion.

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Raygorodok entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

Holocaust

On July 7, 1941, German troops invaded Raigorodok. From the first days of the occupation, the Jews were ordered to be forced to hard labor and wear a yellow star on the left side of the breast.
On July 15, 1941, a ghetto was established in a few dilapidated houses. Local Ukrainian policemen systematically raped young Jewish women.
On August, 15 Jews were executed.

At 6 AM September 10, 1941, most of the ghetto inmates were forced to walk into Raygorod forest and killed. In the same place, an unknown number of Berdicthev Jews were also killed. Only a few specialists with families were left alive. According to some sources, 140 Jews were killed on that day.
On July 25, 1942, 47 Yanushpol’s Jews were brought to Raygorod ghetto. On the next day they were executed in the Jewish cemetery together with local Jews.
In 1942, a local Jew B.Gleizer happened to escape from the massacre site together with his daughter.

In January 1944, the former shtetl was liberated by the Soviet Army.

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Clik here to view. Site of former synagogue - veterinary clinic was built in this place

Site of former synagogue – veterinary clinic was built in this place

According to the files of the State Comission, about 110-125 local Jews were executed during the Holocaust. After the liberation, 3 mass graves were found – one in Raygorod forest (57 victims) and two the local Jewish cemetery (59 and 4 victims).

After the WWII

After the war, several Jewish families returned to the village, but I could not find their last names, since the Ukrainian locals could remember only their first names and occupations:
– David with his daughter Tsilya. He worked as the head of a livestock farm;
– a chemistry teacher Alla with her husband;
– a school headmaster Kim Musievich with his wife, who worked as a nurse
It is unknonw whether they had lived in Raigorod before WWII or had been sent from other places to work in the vilalge .
In the summer of 2020, I was unable to find out who were the last Jews in the village.

Jewish cemetery

According to the Lo-Tishkah organization, there were 2 Jewish cemeteries in the town, but they are located close to each other, so I assume that nowadays there is one cemetery which has been badly destroyed by the local Ukrainian population.

Memorial plate on the Raygorodok Jewish cemetery, installed by United Jewish Community of Ukraine in 2021:

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A part of the cemetery is used for grazing cows, with the gravestones having been removed and dumped in a heap. What is more, a local resident Vasily Bazilinsky has built his house on a part of the cemetery.

One part of the cemetery (just 4-5 gravestones removed from original place to the row):

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