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On August 19, 1941,
Kherson was captured by the Germans; two - thirds of its Jewish
population had by then been evacuated or had fled the city on their
own. In the first few days of the occupation, the Jews were ordered
to form a "Jewish committee, " which was to register all
the Jews from August 24 to 27. On August 25, the Jews were ordered
to wear a Jewish star on their chests (a yellow
badge in the form of a Shield of David); they were also forced to
hand over to the German administration all the money and valuables
in their possession. When the registration was completed, the Jews
were all concentrated in a ghetto. Between September 16 and 30,
1941, the five thousand Jews of Kherson were taken to an antitank
ditch outside the city and murdered there.
The Kherson oblast
contained the Jewish autonomous subdistricts of Kalinindorf, Stalindorf,
and Nay Zlatopol. There were Jewish kolkhozes (collective farms)
in these subdistricts, successors to the Jewish agricultural settlements
that had been established there in the second half of the nineteenth
century. On the eve of World War II, the three subdistricts had
a Jewish population of thirty - five thousand, most of them farmers.
The fate of the Jews living in the kolkhozes can be deduced from
the course of events in the Stalindorf subdistrict. In the second
half of September 1941, Aktionen took place, and groups of Jewish
men were murdered in several kolkhozes. Heavy collective fines were
imposed on the Jews. They were robbed of their belongings, and the
community property of the kolkhozes was confiscated. Early in the
spring of 1942 the Jewish farmers were told to sow potatoes and
grow vegetables for the German administration. In April, many Jewish
men were drafted and put into eight labor camps to work on the
construction of the Dnepropetrovsk - Zaporozhye highway. The old
men, women, and children left behind in the kolkhozes were rounded
up and killed on May 29. On December 5, 1942, all the men were put
into the Lyubimovka camp, where they were murdered or died as a
result of hard labor and disease.
The Kherson region
was liberated in mid - March 1944. Surviving Jewish farmers who
returned, expecting to rehabilitate their farms, found them occupied
by Russians and Ukrainians. The appeals that Jews made to the authorities
in Kiev to restore the Jewish autonomous subdistricts were rejected,
and when the war ended they were officially abolished.
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 Kherson
was founded by a decree
by Ekaterina II in June 18, 1778. It was founded
with the aim to defend the south part of the Russian empire. The city
was built at the mouth of the Dniper-river and it had to be the base
for the creation of the Black sea fleet. The city was named in the honour
of the old Greek colony Khersones. Thus, the Empire proclaimed itself
the successor of the Old State & declared about its rights on these
lands. The document about the foundation of Kherson says: "Giving such
name we renew the famous name which the Empire has been keeping for
ages. Our folk is united & the real branch of ancient Slavs. Kherson
was the source of Christianity for Russia, the place where the true
faith lighted up in Russia with the help of the Prince Vladimir". Even
the foundation of the city with such name had to rise the Christian
population of Balkan & Crimea on the struggle for their liberty. The
appearance of the new city on the map is connected with the name of
Potjomkin, pointing to Alexander
 Shants
(the Russian fortification).
Like all of the southern
Ukraine, the province is densely spotted with archaeological excavation
sites (mezolithic, copper and bronze ages). In 8th-7th centuries B.C.
the Kherson steppes were a part of the Scythian state. In the 2nd century
B.C. the area was inhabited by the Sarmats and proto-Slavic tribes.
In the 2nd-6th centuries A.D. there were rather numerous Slavic settlements.
In the 10th-13th centuries the area was a part of Kyiv Rus, but after
the Tartar-Mongol invasion it fell under the control of the Crimean
Khannat, which in its turn in the 15th century became a part of the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. After
the Cossacks, the most militant of the Ukrainian population, founded
Zaporizka Sich, a heavily fortified military base on the southern frontier
of the Slav territory, numerous raids against Tartars and Turks were
carried
 out. In the 18th century several more "siches" (military
bases) were founded, which considerably lessened Moslem control of the
territory. In 1774 the territory became a part of the Russian Empire.
In 1778, on the site of Fort Alexander-Schanz, the city of Kherson was
founded. In 1803 it became the administrative centre of Kherson Province.
Ukrainians, Russians and German colonists contributed to the development
of the territory.
In a nutshell: The administrative centre
of Kherson Province. Major river and sea port. Industrial centre specializing
in ship-building, agricultural machine-building, and canning industry.
The area of the province - 28,500 sq.km. The population of the province
- 1,283,000. The population of the city - 375,000.
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