Jews began to settle in Gorodok in the 17th century. The Jews of Gorodok suffered greatly during the uprising (1648-1649) of Bogdan Chmelnitsky. In 1897 the Jewish population stood at 3,194 (or 37 percent of the total); however, by 1939 it had declined to 2,329.
The Germans captured Gorodok on July 8, 1941. An open ghetto was set up in one part of the town. The Jews were ordered to wear yellow badges on their clothes. The Jewish community was told to hand over their valuables to the Gebietskommissar (regional commissar) of Yarmolintsy on the promise that thus they would remain alive. In the fall of 1941...
Gorodok was a mixed Jewish-Belarusian town, with a Jewish population of 275 in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s most of Gorodok's Jews were artisans in cooperatives or worked on a kolkhoz located nearby. In the 1920s the town had a Yiddish school.
The Germans occupied Gorodok at the end of June 1941. Immediately after this 11 Jewish men were murdered. Soon thereafter all the remaining Gorodok Jews, about 50 people, were concentrated in one house. Several able-bodied Jews from Gorodok succeeded in escaping and joining the partisans. The rest, mostly women with children and old people, were murdered in the...