Verkhnedneprovsk

Jews began to settle in Verkhnedneprovsk in the first half of the 19th century. In 1847 265 Jews lived there. By the 1860s there were three synagogues in Verkhnedneprovsk and also a Hevra Kadisha, a Jewish burial society. In 1897 2,058 Jews lived in Verkhnedneprovsk, where they comprised 30.7 percent of the total population. At the turn of the century most of Verkhnedneprovsk's Jews were tailors or merchants who owned most of the town's shops. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a Talmud Torah, as well as two private Jewish schools and one public one. In 1905 there was a pogrom in Verkhnedneprovsk during which Jewish property was looted. The Jewish community of Verkhnedneprovsk suffered from the calamities of the revolutionary years in Russia. In 1919-1920 there were pogroms in the town: a number of Jews was murdered, including the head of the Jewish community. There was a decrease in the Jewish population during the early Soviet peropd, due mainly to the migration of Jews to urban centers or other areas. In 1939 only 119 Jews were living in entire Verkhnedneprovsk county, where they comprised 0.23 percent of the population. Verkhnedneprovsk was occupied by German forces on August 17, 1941, but many of its Jews had managed to leave before that. Almost immediately after the start of the occupation the Jews were ordered to register, forced to wear armbands, and taken to perform various types of exhausting work. The Jews were constantly humiliated and beaten. In autumn of 1941 (or December 1942, according to some testimonies) Jews of Verkhnedneprovsk and apparently also from the area were murdered outside the town. Verkhnedneprovsk was liberated by the Red Army on October 22, 1943.