Krasnograd

Krasnograd was founded in the 1730s as the Bilevska Fortress. In 1784, the fortress became a town, which was named Konstantinograd. At about the same time, Jews began to settle there. Initially, their numbers were small, and in the mid-19th Century Konstantinograd was home to only a few hundred Jews. The community saw significant growth toward the turn of the century, reaching 1,099 people (17 percent of the total population) in 1897. The Jews of Konstantinograd made their living primarily from crafts and from trade in agricultural produce. On the eve of World War I, Jews played a prominent role in the economic life of the town, owning most of the shops, all of the inns, a mill, and two printing houses. At about the same time, a Jewish savings-and-loan association was established in Konstantinograd, and it boasted approximately 700 members.

In the early 20th Century, the town had several Jewish religious and general educational establishments, including a Talmud Torah school, a cheder metukan (a religious school with Hebrew as the language of instruction), a public school for Jewish children from poor families, and a private school for boys. In the same period, the Zionist movement gained in popularity among the Jews of Konstantinograd.

In 1915, during World War I, Jewish refugees from Lithuania and Latvia arrived in Konstantinograd and received assistance from a local committee for aid to refugees. These Jews stayed in the town for the duration of the war, returning to their countries of origin only after those had gained independence.

The Jews of Konstantinograd suffered from the upheavals of the Russian Revolution and Civil War. In April 1918, Ukrainian militants assaulted Jews in the town, killing three of them. Some of the Jews chose to leave Konstantinograd at the time and search for safer places.

Following the establishment of Soviet rule, the town was renamed Krasnograd. From the mid-1920s until the late 1930s, Krasnograd had a Jewish school with Yiddish as the language of instruction. In the course of the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish community of Krasnograd declined in numbers, with many local Jews – especially the younger ones – choosing to leave the town for larger cities in search of new educational and professional opportunities. In 1939, Krasnograd was home to 547 Jews, who made up 3.3 percent of the total population.

German troops occupied Krasnograd on September 20, 1941. Most of the Jews had managed to leave the town before that date. Those Jews who stayed behind were abused and robbed by both the Germans and the local auxiliary policemen, and forced to perform various grueling tasks. In mid-May 1942, Soviet forces were briefly able to retake the town, but were driven out by the Germans at the end of that month. In late May or early June 1942, some 100 Jews who still lived in Krasnograd were registered by the local German commandant’s office and concentrated in one section of the town. The inmates of this makeshift ghetto were once again subjected to various abuses and confiscations, and Jewish women were raped. In late June 1942, all the Jews of Krasnograd were taken out of the city and shot dead at a site a few kilometers south of it.

The Red Army liberated Krasnograd for good on September 18, 1943.