Druzhkovka

The earliest reference to the settlement of Druzhkovka dates to 1781. Jews began to live there in the late 19th – early 20th Century. In the late 19th Century, a Jewish-owned sugar-processing plant was established in Druzhkovka. During the Soviet era, in 1923, the local synagogue was closed down. In 1939, Druzhkovka was home to 433 Jews, who made up 1.4 percent of the total population. It is likely that some Jewish refugees from the occupied western regions of the USSR came to the town in the aftermath of the German invasion. Druzhkovka was occupied by the Germans on October 26, 1941. The local Jewish population was liquidated in two stages: The men were shot in December 1941, while the women, children, and elderly people were murdered gradually over the period from February 1942 until May 1943. Druzhkovka was liberated by the Red Army on September 6, 1943.