Cherny Ostrov

Jews began to settle in Cherny Ostrov in the early 18th century. In 1897, the town was home to 2,216 Jews, who made up seventy-nine percent of the total population. Under Soviet rule, Cherny Ostrov became the seat of a Jewish rural council. The town had a seven-year Yiddish school and a collective farm named Agrominimum. In 1939, there were 1,200 Jews in the town, comprising 29.4 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Cherny Ostrov on July 7, 1941. That same month, a ghetto was set up in the section of the town near the synagogue, and it was fenced off with barbed wire. The Jews were forced to hand over their gold, valuables, and other possessions, and to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes. A group of young Jews and specialists were moved into the Proskurov Ghetto, while the rest of the Jews remained in the local ghetto. The inmates were regularly sent to forced labor. On September 12, 1942, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, a group of Jews – mainly elderly people, women, and children – were shot by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen in the forest outside of town. That same year, twenty-six Jews were shot by the local Gendarmerie at the town's Jewish cemetery. Cherny Ostrov was liberated by the Red Army on March 8, 1944.