Dobrush

The presence of Jews in Dobrush is first attested in the mid-16th Century, when there were 12 Jewish households in the town. Under Soviet rule, many local Jewish laborers made their living as artisans, while a few became white-collar workers. In 1939, Dobrush was home to 440 Jews, who comprised approximately 3 percent of the town's population. A large segment of the Jewish community managed to escape into the Soviet interior in the weeks leading up to the German occupation of the town on August 22, 1941. In October of that year, the Germans registered the remaining Jews, who were ordered to wear yellow identifying stripes on the front and back of their clothing. By the end of October, all the Jews of Dobrush and the surrounding area had been concentrated in a sealed ghetto set up by the Germans three kilometers south of the town, in two barracks of the district agricultural administration – the Machine Tractor Station (MTS). They were forbidden to leave the area. The ghetto was liquidated in November 1941. The surviving Jews, who numbered several dozen, were shot in the vicinity of the town in April 1942. Dobrush was liberated by the Red Army on October 10, 1943.