Malaya Viska

Jews settled in Malaya Viska during the second half of the 19th century. They made their living as petty merchants or artisans. In 1939 the Jewish population of 207 comprised 2.3 percent of the total population of Malaya Viska. The town was occupied by the Germans on August 2, 1941. In early September the Jews from all over Malaya Viska County were concentrated in a ghetto that was set up in the stable of the Malaya Viska sugar refinery. Many of the inmates died of starvation or cold or were shot by the Germans while performing forced labor. Some sources say two Jews were shot in the area of the railway crossing, but the exact date of this murder is not known. Most of the ghetto inmates were murdered in December 1941 in the Lyutsiy (Lyutsovskiy) Forest. The town was liberated by the Red Army on March 13, 1944.