Kharkiv, the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was a major industrial and scientific metropolis of the Soviet Union. Despite being outside the Pale of Settlement, it was a diverse borderland region and a vibrant center of Jewish cultural and social life. During World War II, Kharkiv was occupied twice between 1941 and 1943. The occupation of the region was accompanied by mass violence and persecution of Jewish and non-Jewish residents. Once the population census was conducted, Jews were identified and forcibly relocated to the Jewish ghetto. This was followed by the “Holocaust by Bullets” of approximately 12,000-15,000 Jews who were murdered in the mass killing operations in the Drobytsky Yar ravine and other sites of the region.
This dissertation investigates the history of the Holocaust in the multiethnic society of the German-occupied Kharkiv oblast (Ukraine) in 1941-1943. The primary purpose is to study the genocidal process of the extermination of Jews, the stages and forms of the genocide, and the typology of its victims. The process included various forms of discrimination, antisemitic legislation, forced registration and identification of the population, segregation to the ghetto and isolation, and restrictions on movement.
Furthermore, the project delves into the responses of Jews to the genocide and accompanying violence, Jewish survival strategies, and escape behavior during the Holocaust. I am interested in how Jews used various resources to avoid victimization, as well as their motivations and patterns of actions for survival. The research explores Jewish experiences through the lenses of families, women, and children. The thesis also examines complex interrelationships among ethnic groups of the region and their social interaction with Jewish victims in a broader context. Theoretically, the project aims to define various types of responses during the crisis and genocide.
The project draws upon source material in Russian, Ukrainian, English, German, Polish, and French languages. The material includes state and public documents such as population census lists, German orders and reports, Soviet documentation, postwar trial records, etc. It also uses personal documents produced by witnesses, rescuers, victims, and survivors, such as interviews, testimonies, letters, memoirs, diaries, etc. Most of the source material is stored in the archives of Ukraine, Russia, the USA, Israel, Germany, Poland, and France.
Previous research shows that historical knowledge about the Holocaust in the eastern regions of Ukraine, particularly the Kharkiv oblast, is limited. Thus, this research project aims to fill a geographical gap in the historiography of the Holocaust in Ukraine. This local study will provide a better understanding of organizing a genocide in a large city, as compared to isolated Jewish settlements, and explain geography-based nuances that reflect unique Jewish experiences in the region. Unlike previous studies on perpetrators and collaborative groups minimizing the agency of Jews, this project contributes to a new dimension of the scholarship by using an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework of victim behavior. Drawing on sociological theories, my goal is to clarify victims' actions, reactions, and motives in crisis situations and identify various strategies for escaping danger and achieving survival. Finally, the research on the history of the war's eastern front needs to be approached beyond national boundaries and borders. Ultimately, the project contributes to the Holocaust, Jewish, and Ukrainian transnational histories.
