Shklov was an important Jewish religious center. There was a yeshiva there in the 18th century. Shklov became the center of the Haskalah movement.[3] At the end of the 19th century, there were 5542 Jews in the town. Jews traded for a living. A dozen families worked in the Jewish kolkhozIskra. In 1939, only 2132 Jews remained in Shklov. The Germans occupied the town on July 12, 1941.[4]
The first execution of Jews took place just a few days into the occupation. The Germans shot 25 Jewish men in Lenin Park. At the end of July 1941, two ghettos were established in the neighboring village of Ryzhkovichi. In August 1941, the Einsatzgruppen arrived in the town and gathered 84 Jews under the pretext of sending them to forced labor. In fact, they were taken to the village of Semyonovka and were shot in the kolkhoz. In September 1941, the Jews were taken to a ravine in Khoduly, between the villages of Putniki and Zarechye. They had to undress and lie in the ditch before being shot. According to Soviet sources, 3200 Jews were killed in Shklow and the surrounding neighborhood.[5]
Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus since 1994, held a position as the director of the construction materials plant in Shklow Raion before he became a kolkhoz director and then moved into politics.[6]
Transport
1 railway station
3 bus routes
Notable people
The Jewish family name Shklovsky or Shklover indicates that the person or their ancestors come from Shkloŭ.
Semyon Zorich, Serbian-born Russian General who founded an estate in Shkloŭ (Shklov).
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, studied and lived in Shklov before emigrating to the United States to become the preeminent Torah sage and posek of his generation[8]
