Rakitnoye

Jews apparently lived in Rakitnoye since the early 18th century. The economic development of the area in the 19th century led to a significant increase in the Jewish population of Rakitnoye. In 1897 2,037 Jews lived in the town, where they comprised 35 percent of its total population. Most of Rakitnoye's Jews were small-scale merchants or craftsmen. At the turn of the century Rakitnoye had a private Jewish school for boys with Russian as the language of instruction. In 1905 railway workers tried to organize a pogrom in Rakitnoye but they were driven off by local peasants. The Jews of Rakitnoye suffered greatly from the violence accompanying the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. Scores of Jews were murdered in the town in several pogroms carried out by armed gangs in 1917-1919. About 100 Jewish women were raped during these pogroms and much Jewish property was damaged or destroyed. In 1920 a well-armed Jewish self-defense unit was established in Rakitnoye. The unit existed for two years. Under the Soviets a town council with deliberations in Yiddish was established in Rakitnoye. In the 1920s and 1930s there was a four-year (later a seven-year) Yiddish school in Rakitnoye. Many Jews, especially young ones, left Rakitnoye during the 1920s and 1930s for larger towns and cities in search of educational and vocational opportunities. In 1939 711 Jews were living in Rakitnoye, where they constituted 51.3 percent of the total population. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Polish Jewish refugees arrived in Rakitnoye. Some Rakitnoye Jews succeeded in leaving the town before it was occupied by German troops on July 25, 1941. Immediately after the start of the occupation the abuse and murder of Jews started. Jews were forced to perform various types of labor. Either in the summer or fall of 1941, several hundred local Jews were murdered on the outskirts of the town. The Red Army liberated Rakitnoye on January 7, 1944.