Maykop

The territory of the Adyghe Autonomous District, like that of the whole Krasnodar District, had been outside the tsarist Pale of Settlement where Jews were allowed to live. Nevertheless, some groups of Jews lived there before the revolution of 1917. From 1900 the city had a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. In 1926, under the Soviets, Maykop had a Jewish community with 595 members.

After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the district became a destination of evacuation and flight for both Soviet industry and civilians,including many Jews from the western parts of the Soviet Union.

The Germans occupied Maykop on August 10, 1942. They immediately began using Jews for forced labor. From late August until mid-September the Germans arrested Jews in Maykop, along with non-Jewish Communists and intellectuals. According to several sources, these victims were shot in three locations in and around Maykop. One was on the banks of the Belaya River, near the local distillery. After the war, 2,056 bodies, including those of 117 Jews, were found there in several pits.

The second site was the Burial Mound of the First of May, on the eastern edge of the city (near the village of Kuzhoroksaya), where 36 Jews were shot to death. The third location, where seven Jews were murdered was in the village Khanskaya, just west of Maykop.

The Red Army liberated Maykop on January 29, 1943.