Akhtyrka

Since the Akhtyrka County lay outside the Pale of Settlement, the Jewish community in the town of Akhtyrka was relatively small, compared to other localities in the Sumy District. In 1897, Jews made up a mere 0.7 percent of the town's population. In 1926, following the Russian Civil War, there were only 369 Jews in Akhtyrka, out of a population of 26,982. In 1939, the town was home to 277 Jews, who constituted approximately one percent of the total population. Akhtyrka was occupied by the Wehrmacht on October 14, 1941. On February 6, 1942, German troops and local policemen killed thirty-two Jews at a trench near the Church of Michael the Archangel. Akhtyrka was fully liberated by the Red Army on August 25, 1943.