Novaya Praga

Jews first settled in Novaya Praga in the first half of the 19th century. On April 4, 1882 the Jews of Novaya Praga suffered a pogrom in which all the Jewish houses and shops except one were destroyed. In 1902 a Talmud Torah school and a school for girls were operating in the town. Under the Soviets by 1939 the Jewish population had declined to 113, which was about 1.2 percent of the total population. Novaya Praga was occupied by Germans troops on August 5, 1941. Part of the Jewish population was shot in the town in the late spring of 1942. On June 8 the remaining Jews and ones from nearby villages were concentrated in a building next to the synagogue. The following day the old people and the children were shot. Guarded by members of auxulary police, the surviving Jews were forced to work in a stone quarry on the outskirts of the town. These Jews were murdered in August 1942. The town was liberated by the Red Army on December 7, 1943.