Kupel

Jewish settlement in Kupel began in the 18th century. In 1796 a Jewish printing press was in operation there. In 1897 the local Jewish population of 2,727 comprised 63 percent of the total population. After the October Revolution pogroms were staged against the Jews of Kupel, most severely on December 5-10, 1917. In 1926 Kupel's 1,828 Jews comprised 67 percent of the total population. A Jewish rural council and a Yiddish school operated in the town and in 1929 a Jewish kolkhoz, "Nay Lebn" ('New Life" in Yiddish), was founded. The Germans occupied the town on July 5, 1941. During the first days the Germans murdered about 90 Jewish men in the town. A ghetto was set up in Kupel and the Jews were taken from the ghetto to perform forced labor. On September 21, 1942 about 600 Jews from Kupel were taken to Volochisk and murdered outside the town. The remaining Jews, those who had been found in hiding, were shot to death at the town's Jewish cemetery. Kupel was liberated by the Red Army in March 1944.