Kalnik

Jews apparently lived in Kalnik since the first half of the 17th century. In 1648 Kalnik was overrun by Bogdan Chmelnitsky's Cossack troops and the Jews who did not succeed in fleeing were massacred. Jews returned only in the second half of the 18th century but many of them left again in the 1760s and 1770s because of attacks by the Haidamaks. The Jewish population of Kalnik never exceeded 100. Before the establishment of Soviet rule the Jews of Kalnik were mostly artisans or merchants. Kalnik was occupied by German troops in late July 1941. After a month 100 Jews of Kalnik, apparently the entire Jewish population, were murdered near the town by local auxiliary policemen. According to testimonies collected by the Soviet Extraordinary Commission, about 100 Jews who apparently were brought to the town from elsewhere were murdered in Kalnik in 1942. Kalnik was liberated by the Red Army in mid-March 1944.