Novo Aleksandrovskaya

In 1939 the village of Novoaleksandrovskaya and Novoaleksandrovskaya County were part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray District, which before the Russian Revolution was outside of the Pale of Settlement; therefore no Jews lived in this area before the Soviet-German War. However, with the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze Kray District became a destination of civilian evacuation or flight, including of many Jews from Ukraine and Belorussia. With the summer offensive of the German military at the end of June 1942, the Wehrmacht started to invade the Northern Caucasus. German forces occupied Novoaleksandrovskaya on August 3, 1942. Three weeks after the occupation of the village, the local German headquarters ordered the registration of the Jews in Novoaleksandrovskaya. Jews who did not appear for registration would be punished. The German authorities also warned the non-Jewish citizens that if they hid Jews the consequences would be fatal for them and their families. All the local Jewish civilians, as well as Russians who were related to them by marriage, were incarcerated in a building. Jews from the collective farms Temizhbeksky, Gor’kovskiy, Yuzhnyy, and Rasshevatskaya were also arrested. The Jewish civilians were forced to perform hard labor, like building roads or cleaning the streets. The mortality rate of Jews rose drastically due to the terrible conditions, physical abuse, overwork, and the lack of warm clothing. The Jews died also because of starvation and the outbreak of diseases. The Germans killed 541 people, mostly Jews, on a collective farm 2-3 kilometers from the village. The Red Army liberated Novoaleksandrovskaya on January 25, 1943.