Zhornishche

Jews began living in Zhornishche in the late 17th century. In 1768 the Jews of Zhornishche suffered from attacks by the Haidamaks and, as a result, the Jewish population of the town was severely reduced. The significant increase of the Jewish population in Zhornishche started in the 19th century. In 1897 the town's 1,040 Jews comprised 29.6 percent of the total population. The Jews of Zhornishche suffered greatly during the revolutionary years and the civil war in Russia. In mid-November 1917 there was a pogrom in town. The establishment of Soviet rule brought about changes in the occupational structure of Zhornishche's Jews. Many of them were integrated into the municipal or government food processing and food distribution networks. Many younger Jews left town in search of vocational and educational opportunities. In 1926 the 996 Jews living in Zhornishche comprised 21.8 percent of its total population. From the mid-1920s to the late-1930s there was a 4-year Yiddish school in Zhornishche. After the start of the German-Soviet war in June 1941 a number of Jewish refugees from Vinnitsa arrived in Zhornishche. The Germans occupied the town in mid-July 1941. In August a unit of ethnic German militia that had come to the town murdered 13 Jewish men, mostly from among the refugees from Vinnitsa. In September 1941 about 500 Jews of Zhornishche were concentrated in a ghetto, where a number of refugees from Vinnitsa were also incarcerated. The ghetto inmates had to wear white armbands with a Star of David and to carry out various types of hard labor. In late May 1942 the inmates of the ghetto were deported to the town of Ilyintsy and shot there, together with the local Jews. Zhornishche was liberated by the Red Army in mid-March 1944.