Ivankov

Jews apparently started to settle in Ivankov in the early 18th century although their number remained very small until the late 18th and early 19th centuryies. In 1897 1577 Jews lived in the town, where they constituted 51.9 percent of the total population. In the early 20th century there were local Zionist activities and a branch of the socialist Bund organization. The Jews of Ivankov suffered greatly from the violence accompanying the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. A number of the town’s Jews were murdered and Jewish property was looted or destroyed in pogroms carried out by the White troops of Anton Denikin and by various armed gangs between 1917 and 1919. A majority of the local Jews left Ivankov during that period and only a small portion of them returned when the situation stabilized. During the early Soviet period Jewish residents, especially younger ones, continued to leave Ivankov in search of educational and vocational opportunities in larger towns and cities. In 1939 only 430 Jews remained in Ivankov, where they constituted 11.7 percent of the population. About half of Ivankov’s Jews managed to leave before the town was occupied by German troops on August 23, 1941. Most of the Jews who remained were murdered by members of Einsatzgruppe C in the course of September 1941. From late 1941 Jews from the counties adjacent to Ivankov County were taken to Ivankov and murdered in the vicinity of the town. Ivankov was liberated by the Red Army on November 11, 1943.