Swislocz

The first permanent Jewish settlers arrived in Świsłocz in the early 18th Century. According to the census of 1897, the town was home to 2,086 Jews, who made up about two thirds of the total population. This number had not changed significantly by 1939.

The local artisans specialized in tanning: Świsłocz had a relatively large leather factory, as well as several smaller tanneries. World War I, and the subsequent inclusion of Świsłocz within the newly independent Polish Republic, ushered in a period of economic decline in the town.

All the Jewish national movements – the Autonomist Social-Democratic Bund, the leftist Zionist Poalei Zion party, and Zionist youth movements like Hehalutz and Hashomer Hatzair – were well-represented in Świsłocz. Each national movement used its own cultural network: The town had a Tsisho Yiddish school and a Yiddish library operating under the auspices of the Bund; meanwhile, the Zionist movement ran a Hebrew-language Tarbut school and a drama circle.

On September 17, 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Poland, annexing Świsłocz. The new authorities banned all forms of independent Jewish activity, both political and cultural. The Tarbut and Tsisho educational establishments were transformed into state-run Yiddish schools. In the first weeks of World War II, the Jewish population of Świsłocz swelled because of the influx of refugees from western and central Poland, which had been occupied by the Germans.

The German Army entered Świsłocz on June 26, 1941 – i.e., on the fifth day of the Soviet-German war. Over the subsequent days, the Germans executed several Jews who had been denounced to them as communist activists. On the very first day of the occupation, the Germans ordered all Jews to wear an identification mark in the form of a white armband with the Star of David; ten days later, this was changed to a yellow Star of David attached to the upper garments on the front and back. July 1941 saw the establishment of a Jewish council and a ghetto in the town. The Germans began to extort money from the Jews, seize their cattle, and send them to forced labor. Many of the Jewish ghetto inmates and forced laborers died from starvation and disease.

On November 2, 1942, the Świsłocz Ghetto was liquidated. After a selection, the able-bodied Jews (a group that numbered 3,000 people, according to some estimates) were deported to Treblinka and Auschwitz via the Wołkowysk transit camp. The remaining inmates, numbering about 1,500 (although there are also lower estimates), were shot in the nearby Wiszewnik Forest.

Świsłocz was liberated by the Red Army on July 17, 1944.