Tetiyev

Jews apparently lived in Tetiyev since the early 17th century. The Jewish community in the town was totally destroyed during the Chmielnitsky uprising (1648-1649) and was revived only in the early 18th century. Many Tetiyev Jews were murdered in 1768, when the town was occupied by Haidamak troops. In 1897 Tetiyev's Jewish population of 3,326 persons amounted to 95 percent of the town's total population. On the eve of World War I Jews dominated the economic life in Tetiyev, owning all of the shops, as well as several lumber yards, a mill, and a mead brewery. There was also a private Jewish school in the town. The Jews of Tetiyev sufferred from the violence accompanying the years of revolution and civil war in Russia. For example, about 400 Jews were murdered in two pogroms carried out in Tetiyev by armed gangs in August 1919 and in March 1920. Numerous Jews were wounded in these pogroms, Jewish women were raped, and much Jewish property was looted or destroyed. All the surviving Jews abandoned Tetiyev and did not return even when the situation stabilized. Only in the 1930s did a few dozen Jews reside in Tetiyev. German troops occupied Tetiyev in mid-July 1941. The several dozen Jews living in the town at that time were deported to Pyatigory in November 1942 and murdered there, together with the rest of the Jews from Tetiyev County. Tetiyev was liberated by the Red Army in early January 1944.