His regiment succeeded in holding the German lines in the vicinity of Melitopol against numerous attacks by the Red Army at the end of September 1943.
After serving as secretary of the Jewish community of Pinsk, he went to the Crimea, where, at Melitopol, he entered the service of a merchant named Seidener.
In 1802, Tsar Alexander I encouraged resettlement of religious minorities to the so-called 'Milky Waters" (Molochnye Vody): the region of Molochnaya River (around Melitopol in today's southern Ukraine). This was motivated by the desire both to quickly populate the rich steppe lands on the north shore of the Black and Azov Seas, and to prevent the "heretics" from contaminating the population of the heartland with their ideas.
The Zaporizhia Oblast is administratively subdivided into 20 raions (districts) as well as 5 cities (municipalities) which are directly subordinate to the oblast government: Berdiansk, Enerhodar, Melitopol, Tokmak, and the administrative center of the oblast, Zaporizhia.