Senno

Jews first settled in Senno in the mid-17th century. In 1897 Senno's 2,471 Jews comprised more than 61 percent of the total population. Under Soviet rule, due to urbanization and industrialization, the number of Jews in Senno declined. In 1939 they numbered 1,056, comprising 24.5 percent of the total population. In 1924 a local Jewish council was organized in the town. 160 Jewish children in Senno studied in the Yiddish elementary school there. At the end of the 1920s 37 Jewish families worked on several kolkhozes that had been established in the Senno area. Senno was occupied by the Germans on July 5, 1941 and in September 1941 they set up a ghetto in the Jewish neighborhood of Golynka. Over time Jews from [other places in] the vicinity were also concentrated in it. In October-November 1941 the Germans murdered several Jews on different pretexts. Thus, on October 16, 1941, 12 Jews were shot for being late for work. On November 27, 1941 7 people were shot for failing to put out the lights in their houses. The Senno ghetto was liquidated on December 30 (some sources say December 31) 1941, when SS-men and Belarusian police murdered around 800 inhabitants near the old Jewish cemetery on the road to Kozlovka village. Jews caught in hiding and children of mixed marriages were murdered in late January - February 1942. Senno was liberated by the Red Army on June 25, 1944.