Khotovizh

At the end of the 19th century, Khotovizh was home to 490 Jews, who made up the majority of the local population. Most of the Jews were artisans or petty traders. In the early 20th century, and especially during the 1920s, the number of Jews in the town declined significantly, mainly because of the emigration of youth to the cities. On the eve of the war, there were some forty Jewish families left in Khotovizh, along with 140 Belarusian families and three Roma ones. The Germans occupied Khotovizh on August 10, 1941. In the fall of that year, all the local Jews, together with the Roma families, were shot on the northeastern outskirts of the town. Khotovizh was liberated by the Red Army on September 28, 1943.