Bragin

Jews began living in Bragin in the first quarter of the 17th century. The Jewish population of the town suffered greatly during the Chmielnitsky uprising (1648-1649) and the Haydamak rebellion (1750). In 1897 2,254 Jews lived in Bragin, comprising 52 percent of the total population. In the 1920s and 1930s most of Bragin's Jews were craftsmen or workers, and some Jewish families worked on the nearby kolkhozes of Uskhod-Zara and Novy Sovet. During this period there was a Yiddish seven-year school; it was closed down at the end of 1930s. In 1939 958 Jews lived in Bragin, comprising 20 percent of the total population. Bragin was occupied by the Germans on August 28, 1941. Only a few Jews managed to leave the town in time. Most of the local Jews, numbering about 300 people (according to a Soviet source and about 600, according to German sources) were murdered on September 13, 1941 on the outskirts of the town. Those Jews who succeeded in escaping the massacre but were caught later were murdered in the town a short time afterwards. Jews from the surrounding villages were taken to Bragin and murdered there in late 1941 or 1942. Bragin was liberated by the Red Army on November 23, 1943.