Vorontsovo Aleksandrovskoye

The Vorontsovo Aleksandrovskoye County was part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray, which had lain outside the Pale of Settlement prior to the Russian Revolution. As a result, few Jews lived in the town in 1939. According to various sources, on the eve of the war Vorontsovo-Aleksandrovskoye was home to a mere eight Jews, who made up less than one percent of the total population of the town (which stood at 10,745). However, following the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze Kray came to house numerous civilian evacuees, including many Jews from Ukraine and Belarus. With the beginning of the German summer offensive in late June 1942, the Wehrmacht launched its invasion of the North Caucasus. German troops occupied Vorontsovo Aleksandrovskoye on August 18, 1942. The local Jews were killed in two murder operations, both of them carried out by the Germans themselves. The first operation took place on September 8, 1942, when 11 Jews were shot by the Germans in a pit next to the barnyard. In the second operation, which took place on the following day, September 9, the Germans shot 200 Jewish evacuees in a pit 4-5 kilometers from the town. The Red Army liberated Vorontsovo Aleksandrovskoye on January 10, 1943.