Bezopasnoye

The Trunovsky County was part of the Ordzhonikidze Krai, which had lain outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement prior to the Russian Revolution. Only a single Jew lived in the village of Bezopasnoye 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 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. German troops occupied Bezopasnoye on August 3, 1942. In September 1942, German soldiers killed 161 Jewish civilians and buried them in a pit outside the village. In November that year, the Germans and their collaborators executed nine civilians, including Jewish evacuees. The Red Army liberated Bezopasnoye on January 21, 1943.