Kupil ( uk, Купіль, ; russian: Купель, Kupel', ) is a village ('' selo'') in

Khmelnytskyi Raion Khmelnytskyi Raion ( uk, Хмельницький район, ) is one of the 20 administrative raions (a ''district'') of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is located in the city of Khmelnytskyi. Its populati ...

(

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

) of

Khmelnytskyi Oblast Khmelnytskyi Oblast ( uk, Хмельни́цька о́бласть, translit=Khmelnytska oblast; also referred to as Khmelnychchyna — uk, Хмельни́ччина) is an oblast (province) of western Ukraine covering portions of the histo ...

(

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

) of western

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 belongs to

Viitivtsi settlement hromada Viitivtsi ( uk, Війтівці) is a rural settlement in Khmelnytskyi Raion, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Viitivtsi settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The settlement's population was 937 ...

, 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.

History

Settlement in Kupil began in the 18th century. During World War II, the invading German army occupied the town on July 5, 1941, following the commencement of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. Jewish people were kept imprisoned in a local

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

and used to perform forced labor. On September 21, 1942, about 600 Jewish inhabitants from Kupil were taken to Volochisk and executed outside the town. The remaining Jewish inhabitants were ordered shot dead at the town's cemetery. Kupil was liberated from German occupation by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

in March 1944. The

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

scholar William Chomsky was born in Kupil in 1896. He later moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. William is the father of

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

and David. The Yiddish write
Chaim Bejder
was born in Kupil in 1920. He was an editor of the only Jewish magazine in the Soviet Union, ''

Sovetish Heymland ''Sovetish Heymland'' (Yiddish סאָוועטיש היימלאַנד - "Soviet Homeland") was a Yiddish-language literary magazine published by poet and controversial figure (for his participation in the Soviet official "anti-Zionist" campaign) Aro ...

''. He moved to the United States in 1996 and died in the state of New York in 2003.

References

{{coord, 49, 36, 36, N, 26, 30, 36, E, source:ukwiki_region:UA_scale:100000, display=title Villages in Khmelnytskyi Raion Starokonstantinovsky Uyezd Historic Jewish communities in Ukraine Jewish Ukrainian history Holocaust locations in Ukraine