Mohyliw-Podilskyj 3.22

Mohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion (district) of the Vinnytsia Oblast (province), Ukraine. Administratively, Mohyliv-Podilskyi is incorporated as a town of regional significance. It also serves as the administrative center of Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion, one of twenty-seven districts of Vinnytsia Oblast, though it is not a part of the district. It is located at, on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova, along the left bank of the Dniester river. On the opposite side of the river lies the Moldovan town of Otaci, and the two municipalities are connected to each other by a bridge. Population:HistoryThe first mention of the town dates from 1595. The owner of the town, Moldavian hospodar Ieremia Movilă bestowed it as a dowry gift to his daughter, who married into the Potocki family of Polish nobility. At that time, the groom named the town Movilǎu in honor of his father-in-law. In the first quarter of the 17th century, Mohyliv became one of the largest towns in Podolia.Nazi periodMohyliv-Podilskyi was occupied by German and Romanian troops in July 1941. Soon thereafter, thousands of Jews in the town were murdered by the occupiers. Mohyliv-Podilskyi soon became a transit camp for Jews expelled from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria. From September 1941 to February 1942 more than 55,000 deportees came through the town. Thousands of people were jammed into the transit camp and treated cruelly by the Romanian guards. Many Jews were not allowed to stay in Mohyliv-Podilskyi; thousands were forced to travel by foot to nearby villages and towns. The 15,000 who were initially permitted to stay in the town organized themselves into groups. Some 2,000—3,000 were given residence permits, while the rest lived in constant fear of being deported into the Transnistrian interior for forced labor.