Kurskaya

In 1939 the village of Kurskaya, along with the rest of Kurskaya County, was part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray District, which before the Russian Revolution was outside the Pale of Settlement. Consequently, no Jews lived in this area before the Second World War. However, with the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze Kray District became a destination of civilian flight and evacuation, including of many Jews from Soviet Ukraine and Belorussia. With the summer offensive of the German military at the end of June 1942, the Germans started their invasion of the North Caucasus. 250 Jews who had sought refuge in Kurskaya village were caught there. German forces occupied Kurskaya on August 20, 1942 and immediately ordered the registration of Jewish refugees in the village and the rest of the county. On October 19, 1942 the Germans shot to death 468 Jewish refugees from Kurskaya and surrounding villages and farms at a brick factory half a kilometer from the village. The Red Army liberated Kurskaya on January 5, 1943.