Ingulets

Ingulets was a Jewish agricultural colony established in the early 19th century under the name Har Shafer. In 1897 2,696 Jews lived in Ingulets, comprising 97 percent of the total population. The Jews of Ingulets were agricultural workers, artisans, or merchants. The Jews of Ingulets suffered greatly from the calamities of the revolutionary years and civil war in Russia. In July 1919 Denikin's White troops staged a three-day pogrom in the village during which 9 Jews were killed, Jewish women were raped, and Jewish property was looted. In 1928 Ingulets became the seat of a rural council and in 1932 - part of the newly created Stalindorf Jewish Ethnic County. In the late 1920s and early 1930s an agricultural commune Nadezhda(Hope) and two kolkhozes, Pakhar (Ploughman) and "The 14th Anniversary of October," were established in Ingulets. In 1926 an agricultural school was opened; it later became a technical school, Until 1938 Ingulets had a seven-year Yiddish school, a kindergarten, clubs, a drama group with performances in Yiddish, and a library. In the 1920s and 1930s the Jewish population of Ingulets started to decrease due mainly to migration to cities in search of jobs and educational opportunities, to famine, as well as to collectivization in the area. Many non-Jews from nearby villages come to live there. In 1939 only 226 Jews lived in Ingulets, comprising 3 percent of its total population. After the start of the German-Soviet war refugees from Bessarabia arrived in Ingulets. Ingulets was occupied by German forces on August 13, 1941. Soon afterwards a Ukrainian auxiliary police force was organized there. The policemen abused Jewish men, raped Jewish women, and looted Jewish property. Jewish houses were marked with the Star of David. Jews were forced to perform various kinds of labor. A number of Ingulets Jews were murdered in the second half of 1941. In early June 1942 the local Jews were concentrated in several houses in Ingulets. About 1,400 Jews from Ingulets and the area were murdered in early June (July or December, according to other sources) 1942 on the outskirts of the town. Before the massacre 300 able-bodied Jews from Ingulets and the area were sent to construct the Krivoy Rog-Dnepropetrovsk road. Many of them died due to the inhuman conditions or were shot. Jews who were caught after the large-scale massacre in Ingulets and the area were taken to Ingulets and shot near the town.

Ingulets was liberated by the Red Army on February 29, 1944.