Krivoy Rog

The first Jews settled in Krivoy Rog in the mid-1860s. Most of them were merchants or craftsmen. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th the Jews of Krivoy Rog suffered several pogroms. In the 1920s and 1930s, under Soviet rule, there was a steady increase in the Jewish population of Krivoy Rog, mainly due to the migration of Jewish agricultural settlers from the area. The development of heavy industry in the second half of the 1930s brought a significant number of Jewish workers and government officials to the city, while the traditional segment of the Jewish population continued as long as possible to work as craftsmen or to deal in commerce. In 1939 12,745 Jews lived in Krivoy Rog, comprising about 6 per cent of the total population. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war many of Krivoy Rog's Jews succeeded in leaving the city during the organized evacuation. Krivoy Rog was occupied by the Germans on August 14, 1941. Almost immediately the Jews of the city were ordered to wear the Star of David on their clothes and to hand over all their valuables to the German authorities. Kosher slaughtering was banned. The municipal authorities confiscated all the property of the Jews who had left the city and imposed a high tax on the remaining Jews. At the end of August 1941 the Germans murdered several hundred Krivoy Rog Jews and,on October 14-15, 1941, they murdered about 7,000 more Jews near the city. Krivoy Rog was liberated by the Red Army on February 24, 1944.