Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust, Bila Tserkva (courtesy of Bagnet News)
By the 1920s, Bila Tserkva maintained over 18 synagogues and 12 Jewish cheders. Economic hardships and pogroms against the Jewish community sparked emigration and the closure of many Jewish institutions even prior to the Holocaust. The German army invaded the Soviet Union in June, 1941, reaching Bila Tserkva by July. Only a small number of Jews managed to escape. In August, Einsatzgruppen began the mass execution of Jewish adults. Following the extermination of adults, a remaining group of roughly 90 Jewish children and a handful of women, held in decrepit conditions, were to be executed. Two Wehrmacht chaplains, along with several authority members, protested the planned execution, begging for the starving children to be spared. This marked the only occasion throughout the entire war in which Wehrmacht chaplains attempted to prevent a planned Einsatzgruppen massacre. Within a few days, 6th Army commander Walter von Reichenau intervened, and all the children were murdered.
For a more detailed account of the tragedies of the Holocaust in Bila Tserkva, consider reading Evgeny Chernetsky's The World of Jews of Belaya Tserkov.