Donskaya Balka

In 1939 the village of Donskaya Balka, like the rest of Gofitskoye County, was part of the Ordzhonikidze Kray District, which before the Russian Revolution had been 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 evacuation and flight, 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. The Wehrmacht occupied Donskaya Balka in August 1942. The German military arrested 17 Jewish refugees from Donskaya Balka on August 25, 1942 and shot them to death near the village of Burlatskoye. The Red Army liberated Donskaya Balka at the beginning of January 1943.