Kulchiny

Jews began to settle in Kulchiny around the beginning of the 18th century. Most of Kulchiny's Jews were small-scale traders or artisans. In the 1920s a Jewish rural council (selsovet) and a Yiddish school were established in Kulchiny. In the mid-1920s about 1,200 Jews lived in Kulchiny, comprising 39 percent of the total population. However,during the following years many Jews left Kulchiny for large cities. The Germans occupied Kulchiny in mid-July 1941. Together with the Germans, members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) arrived in the town and immediately began to mistreat and rob Kulchiny's Jews. In the spring of 1942 Jews from Kulchiny and the surrounding villages were concentrated in a ghetto. Jewish "elders" and Jewish guards were appointed. The Jews were ordered to wear distinctive patches on their clothes. They were not only forbidden to have any contact with non-Jews, but were also beaten, humiliated, and forced to perform hard labor. On September 21 (in August, according to other sources), 1942 all inmates of the ghetto, with the exception of artisans, were murdered near Manevtsy village. The artisans were shot at the same place about a month (or several days, according to other sources) later. Kulchiny was liberated by the Red Army in March 1944.