Nizhniy Arkhyz

The Zelenchuksky County was part of the Karachay-Cherkessia Autonomous District, which was itself part of the Ordzhonikidze Krai. This region had lain outside the Pale of Settlement prior to the Revolution. Thus, there were no Jews living in the area before World War II. However, in the wake of the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the Ordzhonikidze Krai came to house a large number of civilian evacuees, including many Jews from other areas of Soviet Russia, Ukraine, Bessarabia (present-day Moldova), 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 Nizhniy Arkhyz in August 1942. After the occupation of the village, German mobile killing squads entered it. They carried out a search among the evacuees, but failed to find many Jews. Thus, they took 20 Jewish children from the local orphanage and gassed them to death. The Red Army liberated Nizhniy Arkhyz in January 1943.