Pochinok

Jews apparently first settled in Pochinok at the end of the 18th or at the beginning of the 19th century. The local Jews worked as artisans or as farmers. In 1939 the 283 Jews comprised about 9 percent of the total population. The town was occupied by the Germans on July 17, 1941. Some of Pochinok's Jews managed to flee eastward prior to the occupation. The German occupation authorities forced the Jews to wear yellow armbands. The Jews who remained in Pochinok were forced into a ghetto located in the local machine-and-tractor station. They were held there without food. The ghetto inhabitants were murdered in ditches on April 21, 1942. The town of Pochinok was liberated by the Red Army on September 23, 1943.