Cherkessk

In 1939 the 400 Jews of Cherkessk comprised 1.4 percent of the total population. Most local Jews left the town after the war broke out on June 22, 1941. The Jewish men were called up for service in the Red Army. Numerous Jews from occupied areas, such as Minsk, Leningrad, Dnepropetrovsk, and Lvov were evacuated or fled to Cherkessk. The town was occupied by German and Romanian troops on August 2, 1942. In mid-August 1942 the Jews were ordered to register at the local administration office and to wear white and black armbands with the Star of David. The Jews were used for forced labor. Some of them were imprisoned and underwent abuse and torture while being held. In late August 1942 all the imprisoned Jews, as well as ones from the vicinity, were concentrated in one building, the so-called "dorms," and kept there until late September 1942. On September 20 a second registration of the Jews was announced. On September 27 the Jews were ordered to appear the following day at the railway station - on the pretext that they were going to be sent to some settlement. On September 28, 1942 they were murdered in gas vans in the vicinity of the town. According to some sources several dozen Jews were killed later in a number of smaller-scale murder operations. Cherkessk was liberated by the Red Army on January 21, 1943.