Monastyrshchina

Monastyrshchina was located in the Pale of Settlement. In 1897 Jews comprised more than 80 per cent of the total population of the town. The Jews were mainly engaged in commerce and crafts, while some of them worked in agriculture. Under the Soviets many of Monastysrshchina's Jews, as well as those from nearby Dudino village, joined the Jewish kolkhoz Lenins Veg (Yiddish for "Lenin's Way"). There was a Yiddish-language school in Monastyrshchina. In 1939 the Jewish population of Monastyrshchina numbered 856 or 31 per cent of the total population. The town was occupied bythe Germans on July 15, 1941. After the occupation began a Judenrat was established there. However, according to German sources, its members were murdered, together with 20 more Jews, in mid-September 23, 1941. In September or October 1941 a ghetto was established in Monastyrshchina. The ghetto inmates were murdered in February 1942. One month later 49 Jews who had escaped from the ghetto and from other places were imprisoned and also shot. Monastyrshchina was liberated by the Red Army on April 25, 1943.