Kremenchug

Jews began to settle in Kremenchug in the 1780s. Local Jews suffered from pogroms both before and after 1917: in 1905 24 Jews were killed and 142 wounded, in 1918 - 17 Jews were killed, and in 1919 – 150. There were 19,880 Jews living in the city in 1939, when they comprised about 22 per cent of the total population. The city was occupied on September 9, 1941. However, during the first weeks following the German invasion of the USSR most Kremenchug Jews managed to evacuate or flee eastward with the retreating Red Army. As soon as they arrived, the Germans began to rob the Jewish inhabitants. The Jews were also conscripted for forced labor and made to wear a Star of David on their clothes. They were forbidden to leave their homes after 5 p.m. and to buy food in local stores. According to a census conducted on September 26, 1941, about 3,500 Jews and 100 mixed families remained in Kremenchug. On September 27, 1941 (or, according to some sources, in mid-October), the Jews were ordered to move to barracks surrounded by barbed wire on the outskirts of the city, in the industrial area of Novo-Ivanovka. Upon their arrival the Jews were forced to hand over all their documents and valuables. Several hundred Jews who had hid in the city were captured and also taken to the ghetto. The first mass shooting took place on October 28, 1941 at Peshchanaya Hill. Murder operations of groups of Jews continued at the same location until mid-January 1942. Kremenchug was liberated by the Red Army in September 29,1943.