Donskoye

The Trunovsky County was part of the Ordzhonikidze Krai, which had lain outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement prior to the Russian Revolution. Therefore, no Jews lived in the village of Donskoye in 1939. However, following 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 Bessarabia (present-day Moldova), Soviet Ukraine, and Belarus. With the beginning of the German summer offensive in late June 1942, the Wehrmacht launched its invasion of the North Caucasus, occupying Donskoye on August 3, 1942. In late August, German soldiers killed 112 Jewish civilians in a gas van and buried their victims in a pit outside of the village. The Red Army liberated Donskoye on January 21, 1943.