Pohost Zahorodny

Jews first settled in Pohost Zagorodski in the early 19th century. In 1897 the 593 Jews in the village comprised 70 percent of its total population. After World War I the town was incorporated into the independent Polish state. During the interwar period 550 Jews lived in Pohost Zahorodzki, amounting to about two thirds of its population. The local Jews made their living as artisans, petty merchants, and fishmongers who sold fish from Lake Pohost, as well as flour mill and sawmill operators. Pohost Zahorodzki had a Tarbut Hebrew-language school, a Talmud Torah, a Jewish library, and a Jewish drama group. Zionist parties and youth movements were active in the town. During the Soviet rule, which began in 1939, one Jewish family was exiled to the Russian interior. The Germans occupied Pohost Zagorodski in late June–early July 1941. They confiscated Jewish valuables, required Jewish residents to wear Star of David armbands, and imposed forced labor on the Jews. About mid-August 1941 a group of more than a hundred Jews of the village were murdered at the local Jewish cemetery. During the fall of 1941 several hundred Jewish men were sent to the Hancewicze work camp. Around the same time a ghetto was established in Pohost Zahorodzki. Most of the ghetto inmates were killed in a large-scale murder operation in mid-August 1942. Some days later the rest of the Jews, who had been hiding, were found and murdered as well. Pohost Zahorodzki was liberated by the Red Army on or close to July 15, 1944.