Tyvrov

Jews apparently lived in Tyvrov starting in the 13th century. Until the late 18th century the Jewish community of Tyvrov consisted of only a few hundred people. In the 1760s Tyvrov's Jews suffered from attacks by the Haidamaks. Only in the late 18th century, after Tyvrov became part of the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, did the Jewish community begin to grow. In 1845 Tyvrov's Jews rebelled against the tax policies of the Russian authorities and beat a Jewish tax-collector to death. This revolt was quelled by the Russian army. In 1897 Tyrov's 1,051 Jews comprised 33.3 percent of the town's total population. Most of Tyvrov's Jews were small-scale merchants or artisans. On the eve of World War I Jews figured prominently in the economic life of Tyvrov, owning most of the shops and warehouses and playing a major role in the export of peas. The Jewish community of Tyvrov suffered greatly during the calamities of World War I, the revolutionary years, and the civil war in Russia. Jewish life in Tyvrov underwent profound changes after the establishment of Soviet rule in the town. Initially artisans continued to work privately, but later were compelled to unite in cooperatives. Private shops also gradually closed and the town's merchants began to be employed in municipal or government economic bodies or had to find other occupations. In the 1920s and 1930s Tyvrov had a four-year Yiddish school and an Jewish evening school for adults that mainly provided vocational training. There was an active Yiddish cultural life in the town -- with a library, a reading room, and various cultural events. In the 1920s and 1930s many Jews, particularly the younger ones, left Tyvrov for larger town and cities, either searching for educational or vocational opportunities or because of collectivization and famine in the area. In 1939 Tyvrov's 397 Jews comprised 11.97 percent of the town's total population. German troops occupied Tyvrov on July 18, 1941. Only few Jewish families managed to leave the town in time. Assaults against the Jewish population of Tyvrov started during the first days of the occupation. Jews were humiliated, beaten, and forced to perform various kinds of hard labor and to wear white armbands with the Star of David. A short time after the start of the occupation about 30 Jewish men from Tyvrov were murdered in the vicinity of the town. Most of Tyvrov's Jews, between about 400 and 500 people, were murdered in the late summer or fall of 1941 outside the town. From September 1941 Tyvrov was part of the Romanian occupation zone of Transnistria. In 1942-1943 the Romanian authorities sent to Tyvrov hundreds of Jews they deported from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Tyvrov was liberated by the Red Army on March 16, 1944.