Zhashkov

Jews were first referred to as living in Zhashkov in the second half of the 18th century. In 1897 the town's 2,445 Jews constituted 47.2 percent of the total population.

The Jews of Zhashkov suffered greatly from the violence accompanying the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. About a dozen Jews lost their lives in pogroms carried out in the town by various warring parties in 1917-1918. Many Jews abandoned the town at this time, with only some of them returning when the situation stabilized.

During the early Soviet period the social and professional structure of Zhashkov's Jews changed. In the late 1920s the town council conducted deliberations in Yiddish. In the 1920s and 1930s many Jews, especially the younger ones, left Zhashkov for larger towns and cities in search of new educational and vocational opportunities.

In 1939 the 877 Jews living in Zhashkov constituted 14.6 percent of the total population.

Many Jews managed to leave Zhashkov before it was occupied by German troops on July 19, 1941. Soon after the start of the occupation Jews who were living in Zhashkov were concentrated on one of the town’s streets. Most of Zhashkov's Jews were murdered, together with Jews from elsewhere in the county, in the summer of 1941 and in 1942, in the vicinity of the town. In 1942 about 100 Zhashkov Jews were deported to Buki, the administrative center of the adjacent county.

The Red Army liberated Zhashkov on January 4, 1944.