Kodnya

The first written reference to Jews in Kodnya relates to the year 1593. In 1897 the town's 688 Jews comprised 37.8 percent of the total population. During the Russian civil war Kodnya's Jews suffered from several pogroms. In 1926 Kodnya had 744 Jewish residents, who comprised approximately 24 percent of the entire population. German forces occupied the town on July 8, 1941. In August the Germans put 185 local Jews onto three trucks and drove them to the nearby narrow-gauge railway station, where they were shot to death. The Red Army liberated Kodnya on December 31, 1943.