Velykyi Khodachkiv ( uk, Великий Ходачків, pl, Chodaczków Wielki) is a selo in

Ternopil Raion Ternopil Raion ( uk, Тернопільський район) is a raion in Ternopil Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil. It has a population of On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the n ...

Ternopil Oblast Ternopil Oblast ( uk, Тернопі́льська о́бласть, translit=Ternopilska oblast; also referred to as Ternopilshchyna, uk, Терно́пільщина, label=none, or Ternopillia, uk, Тернопілля, label=none) is an obl ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. It lies on the banks of the Rudka river, on the rail line from

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

Rohatyn Rohatyn ( uk, Рогатин, pl, Rohatyn) is a city located on the Hnyla Lypa River in Ivano-Frankivsk Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Rohatyn urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Pop ...

. Velykyi Khodachkiv belongs to Pidhorodne rural hromada, one of the

hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...

s of Ukraine. The population is 1394 people (2003 census). The first mentions of the village date back to 1758. On 16 April 1944 the village was almost totally razed. Of the 710 houses in the village only 30 were left standing. From 1944-46, 210 ethnic Ukrainian families from prewar

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

were resettled there.

History

The village was the location of the Chodaczków Wielki massacre during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Chodaczków Wielki was an ethnically Polish village before the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subse ...

. According to Polish historian, Grzegorz Hryciuk, on 16 April 1944 the village was destroyed by the Ukrainian

4th SS Police Regiment The 4th SS Police Regiment (german: SS-Polizei-Regiment 4) was named the 4th Police Regiment (''Polizei-Regiment 4'') when it was temporarily formed in 1939 from existing Order Police (''Ordnungspolizei'') units for security duties during the in ...

then subordinated to SS-Galizien. The estimates of victims range from 250 to 854. Chodaczków Wielki massacre is alleged to have been one of the biggest massacres of Poles in the region of Eastern Galicia. Poles who escaped the massacre buried the dead in a communal grave, in front of the local Roman Catholic church. After the

, Polish survivors were forced to leave the village, deported by the Soviet authorities to new

communist Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

. They settled as a group around

Gogolin Gogolin is a town in southern Poland, in Opole Voivodeship, in Krapkowice County. It has 6,682 inhabitants (2019). It is the seat of Gmina Gogolin. Geology and palaeontology Gogolin gives its name to the Gogolin Formation whose strata were firs ...

and

Niemodlin Niemodlin (; german: Falkenberg O.S., Falkenberg Oberschlesien; szl, Ńymodlin) is a town in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland, with 6,315 inhabitants (2019). History The community was first mentioned as ''Nemodlin'' in a 1224 deed and r ...

in the

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper S ...

. Until 18 July 2020, Velykyi Khodachkiv belonged to

Kozova Raion Kozova Raion () was a raion in Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine. The administrative center was the town of Kozova. Its area was 694 km². The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced ...

. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Ternopil Oblast to three. The area of Kozova Raion was merged into Ternopil Raion.

Footnotes

Sources

War crimes of Ukrainian soldiers SS-Galizien

Memoirs of Teofila Kolodenna, born in 1929 in Chodaczkow Wielki

Table with number of victims in Tarnopol poviat

External links

Chodaczków
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego
Великий Ходачків
{{Authority control Ruins in Ukraine Villages in Ternopil Raion

History

See also

Footnotes

Sources

External links