Obodivka is located in Vinnyts'ka Oblast, Ukraine, sixty-seven miles south-southeast of Vinnytsia,
the administrative center of the oblast.
Its map coordinates are 48° 24' north latitude and 29° 14' east longitude.
1897 Jewish population: 1,676
Name Variants: Obodovka [Russian and Yiddish]; Obodivka [Ukrainian]; Obodówka [Polish]
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Obodovka's Jewish population grew from thirty-three people in 1865 to 1,675 souls
(21.6% of the total population) at the time of the 1897 Russian Census. In May 1919,
during the period of the Polish-Soviet War and the Russian Civil War, a pogrom was
visited upon the Jews of Obodovka and surrounding towns and villages (many pogroms
occurred throughout the Ukraine during 1919-1921). This pogrom was a harbinger of
greater suffering to come.
At the beginning of World War Two, in 1939, the Jewish population of the town had
declined to five-hundred thirty-five people – a 68% decline in just four decades. The Nazis
would soon decimate these remaining Obodovka Jews, along with thousands of other Jews
from around the region. On 28 July 1941 the Germans captured Obodovka, established a
ghetto, as well as camps throughout the region, and began their homicidal program to
expunge Jews from the earth.