Novo Moskovsk

The first reference to a Jewish presence in Novo Moskovsk relates to the beginning of the 19th century. At the end of the century the number of Jews was over 1,400 and comprised 11 percent of the total population. The first decades of the 20th century witnessed an active Jewish cultural and political life in Novo Moskovsk. There were two Jewish schools, a Jewish public library, and branches of various Jewish political parties, both Zionist ones, like Tseirei Zion and Poalei Zion, and non-Zionist ones, like the socialist Bund. In 1883 and 1905 there were local pogroms, during which Jewish property was seriously damaged or looted. In December 1918 Ukrainian troops of Petlyura caried out a pogrom in the town. During the Soviet period many Jews left Novo-Moskovsk. In the mid-1920s some of them moved to Jewish agricultural settlements in southern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula. However, the main trend of migration, especially among the youth, was from the town to big cities. In 1939 the 757 Jews lived in Novo Moskovsk comprised 2.6 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Novo Moskovsk on September 27, 1941. Many Jews remained in the town. They were ordered to register and to wear a Star of David armband, and were taken to perform various types of work. The Jews were maltreated, beaten, and killed; Jewish women were raped. In early December 1941 most of the Jews of Novo Moskovsk were concentrated into a compound located on Kuznechnaya Street near the Samara River, that became a ghetto. The ghetto was liquidated on March 2, 1942, when its several hundred inhabitants were murdered on the outskirts of the town. Novo Moskovsk was liberated by the Red Army on September 22, 1943.