Arkhangelskoye

In 1939 the village 0f Arkhangelskoye, along with the rest of Arkhangelskoye County, was part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray District, which before the Russian Revolution of February 1917 was outside the Pale of Settlement. Consequently, no Jews were living in this area before World War II. 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 offensive of the German army at the end of June 1942, the Wehrmacht began the invasion of the North Caucasus. German forces occupied Arkhangelskoye on August 18, 1942. Three weeks later German murder squads arrived in Arkhangelskoye from the city of Budyonnovsk. On September 14 (other sources say on September 7) 1942 the Germans killed 48 Jews at a local animal burial ground. The Red Army liberated Arkhangelskoye on January 11, 1943.