Glussk

The first reference to Jews in Glussk dates to the 17th century. At the end of the 19th century Glusk had approximately 3,800 Jews, who constituted over 70 percent of the town's population. Most Jews in the town were merchants or craftsmen. In the course of the Soviet-Polish war, in 1920, Polish troops carried out a pogrom in Glussk, burning Jewish shops and houses and injuring and robbing the Jewish population. During the Soviet period many Jews joined crafts or agricultural cooperatives. A Jewish soviet and a Yiddish school operated in the town but were liquidated at the end of the 1930s. In 1939 1,935 Jews lived in Glussk, comprising 37.7 percent of the total population. After the beginning of World War II some Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland sought refuge in the town. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, however, few Jews succeeded in leaving the town. The first German troops entered Glussk on June 27, 1941. Almost immediately all the Jews were forced to wear yellow badges in the shape of a Star of David. Jews were robbed of their possessions and forbidden to walk on the sidewalks or to enter non-Jewish homes. They were forced to perform menial labor and were abused. The Germans appointed a Jewish council of three members in the town. Jews from Glussk were murdered at the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942 at Myslotino Hill and at Kostyolski Val. The Red Army liberated Glussk on June 27, 1944.