Berislav

Jews started to settle in Berislav at the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century. In 1897 2,642 Jews (the majority of whom were merchants or artistans) lived in Berislav, comprising 22 percent of the total population. In 1882 there was a pogrom in Berislav: Jewish houses were attacked, Jewish market-stands destroyed, and Jews were abused. The Jewish population of Berislav suffered severely from a wave of pogroms during the civil war in Russia. In the late 1920s several Jewish kolkhozes were established in the vicinity of Berislav by Jewish migrants from other parts of Ukraine. There were Jewish schools on the Kaganovich kolkhoz and on the Frayer Arbeter (Free Laborer) kolkhoz, but both schools were closed in the 1930s. In the 1920s and 1930s there was also a Yiddish school in Berislav itself. In 1939 only 230 Jews lived in Berislav, comprising 3 percent of the total population. After the start of the German-Soviet war many Jewish refugees arrived in the town. Berislav was occupied by German forces on August 23, 1941. On September 22 about 400 Jews then living in Berislav were murdered near the town by the members of Einsatzgruppe D. Another 35 Jews from Berislav were shot in early October 1941. Berislav was liberated by the Red Army on March 11, 1944.