Ladyzhinka

A Jewish presence in Ladyzhinka is first noted in regard to the late 18th century. In 1897 1,173 Jews lived in Ladyzhinka, constituting 31.5 percent of the total population. Most of Ladyzhinka's Jews were small-scale merchants or craftsmen. The Jews of Ladyzhinka suffered greatly from the violence of the revolutionary years and civil war in Russia. In a large scale pogrom carried out by an armed gang in mid-May 1919 about 100 Jews were murdered, Jewish women were raped, and Jewish property was looted or destroyed. Most of the local fled south, to Golovanevsk, where a Jewish self-defense organization provided protection against the pogromists. Very few Jews returned to Ladyzhinka when the situation stabilized in the early 1920s. In 1939 only 101 Jews lived in Ladyzhinka, where they constituted 2.4 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Ladyzhinka on July 29, 1941. In August 1941 several dozen Jews were shot at a ravine on the town's outskirts. The Red Army liberated Ladyzhinka on March 10, 1944.