Kremenets
The town of Kremenets is located in the Ternopil region, around 70 km away from Ternopil. The first written mention of the town dates back to 1226. In 1431 Kremenets obtained the Magdeburg Rights. At this time the first Jews began to settle in.
In 1629, the Jewish population of Kremenets comprised 854 people and constituted 15 percent of the total population. A few centuries later, in 1897, Jews constituted 37 percent of the total, including 6539 people.
Holocaust brought extraordinary destruction to the Jews of Kremenets. In 1941, thousands of Jews were killed. Out of 15 thousand Jews who lived in Kremenets at that time, only 14 survived. The Jewish community was exterminated by the Nazis through mass shootings by the German Einzatzgruppe "C." The Jewish members of intelligentsia were shot first. This happened in August 1941. In January 1942, a ghetto was established to keep Jews isolated from the rest of the town. In July 1942, when it became known that the ghetto was to be liquidated, its captives put up a stiff resistance lasting for two weeks.
