Lokhvitsa

A Jewish presence in Lokhvitsa was first mentioned in regard to the mid-16th century. In 1636 50 Jews were killed during the Pavlyuik rebellion. During the Chimelnitsky uprising in 1648 some local Jews were killed and the rest apparently fled. The Jews in Lokhvitsa were mostly artisans or worked in commerce. In 1897 the local Jewish population of 2,500 comprised 36 percent of the total population. At the end of the 1920s most Jewish artisans were members of industrial cooperatives or worked for state enterprises. In 1930 a Jewish kolkhoz, Nayer Veg (New Way), was founded. It included 188 families and owned 84 hectares of land. There were 2,095 Jews in the town 1939. comprising 19.3 percent of the total population. Lokhvitsa was occupied by German troops on September 12, 1941. Many Jews apparently succeeded in leaving the town for the Soviet interior before the German troops arrived. On May 12, 1942 the 287 Jews who remained were shot. The town was liberated by the Red Army on September 13, 1943.