Vakhnovka

Although Jews started to settle in Vakhnovka in the first half of the 18th century, there were few Jews living there until the end of the century. The dramatic growth of the Jewish population of Vakhnovka started in the 19th century. In 1897 Vakhnovka's 2,404 Jews comprised 44.7 percent of the total population. In the early 20th century the Jewish community of Vakhnovka had several synagogues. Among the Jewish institutions there were a burial society (khevra kadisha), a savings and loan association, and a private school for girls. The Jews of Vakhnovka suffered greatly from the pogroms staged by various warring parties during the civil war in Russia. 20 Jews were killed in a pogrom in Vakhnovka in October 1920. 2,091 Jews lived in Vakhnovka in 1926, when they comprised 34.6 percent of the town's total population. Most of the young Jews left Vakhnovka in the late 1920s and the 1930s for larger cities in search of vocational and educational opportunities. In the mid-1930s there was a Jewish kolkhoz, "Der Shtern" (The Star), in Vakhnovka. Vakhnovka was occupied by German troops in late July 1941. Very few Jews succeeded in leaving before the arrival of the Germans. Those Jews who remained were forced to wear yellow armbands with a Star of David and to establish a Jewish council. For almost a year the Jews of Vakhnovka were subjected to abuse and persecution and were forced to perform grueling labor. During this time a number of Jews were murdered. In early 1942 all the local Jews were concentrated in several houses in the center of the town. On June 3, 1942, about 400 Vakhnovka Jews were murdered in the forest a short distance from the town. Briefly after that several dozens of them were shot also in Vakhnovka vicinity. Vakhnovka was liberated by the Red Army in early 1944.