Pyriatyn (Pyryatyn, Piriatin) | Poltava

Pyriatyn is located on the Udai River, midway between Kyiv and Poltava, 140 km southeast of Kyiv. The first Jewish community was recorded in the early 17^th century. The number of Jews declined dramatically after several pogroms in 1648 and 1918. At the beginning of the 19^th century, there were four synagogues, but all of them were closed once the Soviet regime was installed. There was a Jewish cemetery, two private colleges for Jewish men, two private colleges for Jewish women, and a Talmud Torah. In the 1920’s, there were three registered Jewish religious communities, including Zionist youth movement. The majority of Jews were involved in trade, almost 80% of stores in the town belonged to Jews, or worked as artisans. A small part of the Jewish population worked in factories. In the 1920s a Jewish collective farm, called “The Banner of Communism”, was organized.  On the eve of the war, 13% of the total population was Jewish (about 1,747 Jews living in Pyriatyn). 15-20% of the Jews who lived there before the war managed to evacuate to the East before the German arrival, while the Jewish men were enrolled in the Army. The town was occupied by German troops on September 18, 1942.

From September 1941 until September 1942, Pyriatyn was under German military administration and only in 1942 was it put under civil administration of the general district of Kyiv.  Shortly after the Germans’ arrival, all Jews were registered and marked with armbands bearing the Star of David. The Jewish men were subjected to forced labor. At the end of 1941 or beginning 1942, a ghetto was established and numbered over 1,500 Jews by late March 1942. The ghetto was set up on Naberezhnaya Street and according to the witness interviewed by Yahad, it wasn’t fenced in, but was guarded by policemen.

There were two major executions of Jews carried out by SD units Sonderkommando Plath, accompanied by Ukrainian auxiliary police.

The first one took place on April 6, 1942. During the liquidation of the ghetto, about 1530 Jews were taken to the woods, 3km away from the town, and shot in groups of five at the bottom of the pit. According to witness interviewed by Yahad who saw the column of Jews taken outside the town, the children and elder people were taken in carts, while the adults marched. The column was escorted by Germans with dogs and policemen. The second mass execution took place on May 18, 1942, when several Jewish families were killed along with 380 communists and Soviet militants, and 25 Gypsy families.