Kanev

Jews started to settle in Kanev either in the late 17th or the early 18th century. Evidently the Jewish community of the town was destroyed during the Haidamaks uprising in 1768 and was renewed some time later. In 1897 Kanev's 2,682 Jews constituted 30.3 percent of the town's total population. In the early 20th century Zionist activities in Kanev included Hebrew courses for craftsmen. The Jews of Kanev suffered greatly from the violence that accompanied the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. Several Jews were killed and much Jewish property was looted or destroyed in pogroms carried out by various warring parties between 1917 and 1919. In the 1920s there was a two-year Jewish school in Kanev. In 1939 the town's 487 Jews constituted 6.1 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Kanev on August 16, 1941. Apparently most of the prewar Jewish population managed to leave Kanev before the entry of the Germans. After the start of the occupation the remaining Jews were subjected to severe abuse on the part of local Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. Shortly after the start of the occupation all the Jews were confined to one building in the town. In November 1941 they were taken in the direction of Korsun and shot dead in a ravine on the southwestern outskirts of Kanev. Kanev was liberated by the Red Army on February 3, 1944.