Lubcza nad Niemnem

The first Jews settled in the town of Lubcz, or Liubcha (as the Belorussians preferred to call it) in the first half of the 17th century. Their primary occupation was trade in agricultural produce (grain, linen, etc.), cattle, and timber. In the end of the 19th century, sawmills were built in the shtetl. The census of 1897 listed 2,463 Jews in Lubcz, who comprised 73 percent of the total population. World War I led to the emigration of many local residents; in 1921, when the area became part of the Polish Republic, Lubcz had only 496 Jews, who made up 52.9 percent of the total population. The 1920s saw the return of some Jews who had left their native town during the war. Cells of rival Zionist movements, both left-wing and right-wing ones, sprang up in the town. A small yeshiva was established in it. The period 1923-24 saw the opening of a Yiddish- and a Hebrew-language school; both of them operated alongside a Polish school, which was attended by some of the Jewish children. In September 1939, World War II broke out, and Lubcz was occupied by the USSR. The new authorities nationalized all trade and turned the former Jewish tradesmen into Soviet employees; they also converted the Hebrew school into a Yiddish one, and closed down all religious establishments. However, in September-early November 1939, hundreds of Jewish refugees crossed over from the German occupation zone into Soviet territory. As a result, the Jewish population of Lubcz grew to about 1,500 people in 1940 (however, it dwindled to 1,230 in 1941, following the movement of Jews out of Lubcz to larger towns or to regions lying further east). On June 22, 1941, the German invasion of the USSR began, and Lubcz was bombed on June 24. The Germans entered the town on June 26, 1941; their arrival was accompanied by two days of looting of the Jewish residences by the locals; the Jews who tried to defend their property were beaten. 7-10 days later, SS units arrived in Lubcz and took away 50 Jewish men and 1 non-Jewish Communist official – ostensibly for work; later, they were all shot, probably in Nowogródek. This massacre was followed by a slew of anti-Jewish decrees: Jews were obliged to sew a yellow patch onto their clothing; prohibited from contact with non-Jews, and forbidden to leave the town. A Jewish council and a Jewish police force were set up, and a ghetto was established in August 1941. Jews from the nearby towns of Niehniewicze and Delatycze, and from some local villages, were also transferred to the Lubcz Ghetto; the total population of the ghetto rose to 1,750 people. In December 1941, the occupiers sent 300 ghetto Jews to the labor camp in Dworzec. In April 1942, about 450 Jews – workers and their families – were sent to the Nowogródek Ghetto. In May 1942, Jews from the towns of Rubieżewicze, Iwieniec, and Naliboki were transferred to the Lubcz Ghetto. Together with the veteran inmates, they were divided into two groups. More than 600 younger Jews were sent to a labor camp at Worobjewicze Mały. The rest were transferred to the Nowogródek Ghetto and shared the fate of its inmates. Only the elderly and infirm, as well as women with small children, remained in the Lubcz Ghetto. On June 13, 1942, all of them – 375 people in total – were taken to the Christian cemetery and murdered there. The camp at Worobjewicze was liquidated on August 8, 1942: On the day after the mass murder in Nowogródek, its inmates were shot in pits they had been ordered to dig. Lubcz was liberated by the Red Army on July 8, 1944.