Pyatikhatki

Jews started to settle in Pyatikhatka at the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century. Most of the Jews in the town were small-scale merchants or artisans. In 1926 304 Jews lived in Pyatikhatka, comprising 5.3 percent of the total population. In the 1920s and 1930s many Jews left Pyatikhatka for larger cities in search of new opportunities. In 1939 the remaining 210 Jews in Pyatikhatka numbered 210 and comprised 1.6 percent of the town’s population. Pyatikhatka was occupied by German troops on August 13, 1941. Soon after the establishment of the occupation regime all the Jews of Pyatikhatka were registered by the Germans. About 500 Jews from the town and the area were murdered in the spring of 1942 in mines on the outskirts of the town. Pyatikhatka was liberated by the Red Army on October 19, 1943.