Golovanevsk

Jews first settled in Golovanevsk in the late 18th century. The Jews of Golovanevsk suffered from a pogrom carried out on December 18, 1917. In 1918 Chaim Ostroy organized a Jewish self-defense unit that numbered several hundred armed people. The unit successfully protected the county population from pogroms and attacks of gangs. In early August 1919 the White Army defeated the Jewish unit and Chaim Ostroy and his son Yakov were tortured and brutally murdered. About 200 Jews of Golovanevsk were murdered in a pogrom carried out on August 4, 1919. Under the Soviets, in 1925 the Jews from Golovanevsk established the Friling [Yiddish for Spring] Jewish agricultural cooperative in the Odessa area. Golovanevsk was occupied by German troops on July 30, 1941. The Jewish population of the village was annihilated in two major murder operations: in late September 1941, when 570 people were shot at three murder sites located next to each other, and in February 1942, when 165 Jews were shot. Other sources report the number of Jewish victims to have been 900. The town was liberated by the Red Army on March 17, 1944.