In Memory of the Jews of Henichesk Who Perished in War and Persecution

Pogroms and Revolutionary-Era Violence

Like many Jewish communities in southern Ukraine, Henichesk was affected by anti-Jewish violence during periods of political upheaval in the early 20th century.

In October 1905, amid the Russian Revolution of 1905, a pogrom lasting approximately three days swept through the town. Jewish homes and businesses were looted, and residents faced threats and intimidation. While detailed casualty records are scarce, local accounts describe significant property destruction, particularly in Jewish residential areas. This violence reflected a broader pattern across the Russian Empire, where revolutionary unrest was often accompanied by attacks on Jewish communities fueled by antisemitism and instability.

A far more deadly wave followed after World War I during the Russian Civil War (1917–1921). Across Ukraine and southern Russia, an estimated 35,000 to 150,000 Jews were killed in hundreds of pogroms carried out by multiple forces, including White armies, Ukrainian nationalist groups, and, at times, irregular units associated with the Red Army. These pogroms were larger in scale and more systematic, occurring amid the collapse of state authority and ongoing military conflict.

Because many of these killings occurred outside formal military structures and were not recorded as battlefield casualties, they represent a distinct category of war-related loss. Although specific documentation for Henichesk during this period is limited, the town lay within this broader zone of sustained violence that profoundly affected Jewish life throughout the region.

Together, the pogroms of 1905 and the widespread atrocities of the Civil War era significantly destabilized Jewish communities and were major factors driving emigration from towns like Henichesk in the early 20th century.

The Holodomor

The Holodomor (a term derived from the Ukrainian words for "hunger" and "infliction of death") was a man-made famine that devastated the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1932 and 1933. This national catastrophe, resulting from forced collectivization and grain procurement policies under the Soviet regime, claimed millions of lives across Ukraine. Henichesk and its surrounding agricultural districts were profoundly affected.

Determining the exact number of victims within the Jewish community is difficult, as Soviet authorities often suppressed or falsified death records during this era to obscure the scale of the tragedy. According to local research by historian Yuri Belichko, victims in Henichesk were often buried in existing burial areas, including the older sections of the city cemetery and various informal grounds. While Henichesk historically maintained separate Orthodox, Jewish, and Muslim burial sites, the sheer scale of the crisis often led to emergency communal burials, many of which remain unmarked. These sites represent a tragic, often undocumented layer of the town's geography and serve as a somber precursor to the destruction the community would face just a decade later during the Holocaust.

The Holocaust

The Jewish community of Henichesk was systematically destroyed during World War II. German forces occupied the town on 16 September 1941. Shortly thereafter, Sonderkommando 10a (Einsatzgruppe D) of the German security police, assisted by local collaborators, began the “liquidation” of the remaining Jewish population. Between 2–4 October 1941, approximately 300 to 500 Jews were marched to the northern outskirts of the town and executed in an anti-tank ditch. Evidence suggests that killings also took place in nearby rural areas under the same German occupation.

While many Jewish residents had evacuated eastward ahead of the German advance, those who remained—primarily the elderly, women, and children—were murdered. Testimony from Yad Vashem and local eyewitness accounts indicates that while early reports cited approximately 300 victims, the total number of individuals murdered in the Henichesk district likely exceeded 780.

The occupation lasted until 30 October 1943, during which residents faced forced labor, property seizure, and strict German administration. The Jewish community was never re-established after the war. Today, the memorial “To the Victims of Fascism” marks the site of the massacres.

*Documentation projects provide additional historical evidence: the Yad Vashem Central Database  of Pages of Testimony preserves names, photographs, and personal details submitted by survivors and relatives, while Yahad-In Unum “Holocaust by Bullets” project uses forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts to map mass execution sites in Henichesk and the surrounding region.

The Jewish Military Experience in Imperial Russia

Cantonist Conscription under Nicholas I

Beginning in 1827, under Tsar Nicholas I, Jewish communities in Henichesk and across the Russian Empire were subjected to the harsh Cantonist system. Unlike their Christian neighbors, Jews faced higher conscription quotas—ten per thousand people—and children as young as twelve were sent to military preparatory schools. These Cantonists were frequently deployed to remote regions such as Siberia, the Ural Mountains, or the Volga, deliberately separating them from Jewish life and tradition to encourage forced conversion.

The Crimean War and Service in the South

For Jews in Henichesk, situated at the "gateway" to Crimea on the Sea of Azov, military service was often tied to the defense of the southern frontier. During the Crimean War (1853–1856), local Jewish men were heavily involved in logistics, fortification work, and engineering tasks—digging trenches, building redoubts, and transporting supplies under artillery fire.

Others served in naval auxiliary roles within the Black Sea Fleet, maintaining ships and loading ammunition. Henichesk’s strategic location made it a vital hub for troop mobilization, resulting in a high concentration of local Jewish recruits in southern units. This proximity to the theater of war is reflected in the heavy losses of the era; approximately 500 Jewish soldiers died during the Siege of Sevastopol alone. Despite these hardships, many soldiers maintained religious observances whenever possible, demonstrating resilience and devotion under extreme conditions.

Russo-Japanese War and World War I

By the early 20th century, Jewish military service expanded alongside the Empire’s global conflicts. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), an estimated 30,000–40,000 Jews served, with many among the first units sent to the Far East. By World War I, nearly 500,000 Jews served in the Imperial Army, defending a regime that simultaneously enforced state-sanctioned pogroms. Over 100,000 Jewish soldiers were killed or wounded on the Eastern Front (1914–1917). For Henichesk’s Jewish men, this meant mobilization into southern infantry divisions and continued service in the Black Sea naval infrastructure.

World War II and the Red Army

During World War II, the lines between dying in combat and dying in the Holocaust often blurred. Between approximately 400,000 and 500,000 Jews served in the Red Army, earning many of the highest decorations for bravery, while roughly 200,000 perished in battle or as prisoners of war. In Henichesk, the tragedy was twofold: many Jewish civilians were murdered during the German occupation (1941–1942), while a number of the town’s mobilized men died fighting in the Red Army, including in the battles for the liberation of Crimea and the Perekop Isthmus.

Legacy

For over a century, the Jews of Henichesk and the Russian Empire gave their lives defending a state that often denied them basic rights. Their experience reflects a bitter paradox: loyalty and sacrifice met with systemic discrimination. Their contributions remain a testament to a community that remained resilient and courageous in the face of both external war and internal oppression.