Bryansk

Bryansk was located outside of the Pale of Settlement. Jews first began to settle in the town in the 19th century. At the end of that century the Jewish community numbered more than 1,300 Jews. The town had a Jewish cemetery with a hevra kadisha (burial society), a Talmud Torah, and a synagogue. In 1905 the Jews of Bryansk suffered from anti-Jewish violence. During the early Soviet period in Bryansk several Yiddish schools were operating in the town. In 1939 Bryansk had 5,102 Jews, who comprised 6 percent of the total population. The town was occupied by German troops on October 6, 1941. Since Bryansk was a major railway junction many Jewish refugees from territories occupied by the Germans fled to Bryansk before it too was occupied. Both local Jews and Jewish refugees, some of them from Zhyzdra, were murdered in Probnoye field near Bryansk in murder operations beginning in October 1941. The town was liberated by the Red Army on September 17, 1943.