Kursk

The first Jewish presence in Kursk was in the middle of the 19th century. In 1858 the Jewish population stood at 465 people. In 1939, the number of Jews has risen to 4,914 inhabitants, who comprised 1.4 percent of the entire population. The German forces occupied the city on November 4, 1941. The majority of the Jewish population of Kursk managed to flee to the Soviet interior. The first act of mass murder was on November 12, 1941, when some Jews were murdered in an unknown place. The next murder operation followed in February 1942, when the Germans shot to death 125 Jews at the quarter Dalniye Parki. In June 1942, there were two shootings in Kursk. On one day, the Germans shot ten Jews next to the Dzerzhinsky Street and on the other day they shot fourteen next to the Medical Institute. In the same month the Germans also arrested up to several hundred Jews and brought them to the city prison. All of them were shot soon in the Solyanki quarter. The Red Army liberated Kursk on February 8, 1943.