Sebezh

Jews apparently first settled in Sebezh in the early 18th century. In 1897 Sebezh's 2,561 Jews comprised 59 percent of the total population. In 1926 the Jews numbered 1,813 or more than one-third of Sebezh's total population. The Jewish community had a kindergarten and a Yiddish school. Due to modernization and industrialization the number of local Jews declined: in 1939 they numbered only 845, which was 14 percent of the total population.

Many Jews of Sebezh managed to escape or were evacuated to the east prior to the German occupation that began on July 9, 1941. Several days later two Jews were accused of arson and executed. In September 1941 the 100 remaining Jews were concentrated in a ghetto and assigned to humiliating labor. They attempted in vain to ease their plight by bribing the Germans. The ghetto inmates were shot in early March 1942 near the local veterinary clinic.

Sebezh was liberated by the Red Army on July 17, 1944.