Nezhin

Jews began living in Nezhin in the second half of the 18th century. The town became an important Hasidic center in the 19th century. During a pogrom in 1888 houses of Jews in Nezhin were severely damaged. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 aproximately 30 Jews were wounded. In 1919, during the Russian civil war, several dozen local Jews were murdered by members of the White Army and, later, Jewish possessions were looted by members of the the Red Army. Under the Soviets there was a Yiddish school in the town. In 1939 Nezhin had 2,725 Jews, who comprised 6.9 percent of the total population. After the outbreak of war on June 22, 1941 many Jews from the Western Ukraine and Kiev who had fled from the Germans arrived in Nezhin. Later a number of them, along with many local Jews, succeeded in fleeing into Soviet interior. After the beginning of the occupation, on September 9, 1941, the Germans deported some Nezhin Jews to the Obodevka labor camp. The Jews of Nezhin were ordered to wear a white arm band with a yellow star and were made to carry out forced labor. In November the 325 Jews who remained in Nezhin were murdered by the Germans. Later some Jews from the Nezhin region were deported to Nezhin city and were murdered there (at least 5 Jews from Borzna, Bobrovitsa, and Nosovka were shot in December 1941, and from Kladkovka in Komarovka County - at least 7 Jews were shot, by Hungarians, on February 28, 1943). Nezhin was liberated by the Red Army on September 15, 1943.