Dworzec

The first documentary reference to Jews in Dworzec dates from 1566. In 1897 there were 868 Jews in Dvorets (the town's Russian name), comprising 65 percent of the total population. After World War I and the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1920, when the town became part of the Polish state, its Jewish population decreased: in 1921 388 Jews lived in Dworzec. In September 1939 Dworzec was occupied by the Soviets. The Soviets nationalized all the businesses, including Jewish ones, and suppressed the Jewish parties, both leftist and conservative. On June 30, 1941, the village was captured by German forces. In the summer and fall of 1941 the occupiers issued some anti-Jewish orders, including the obligatory wearing of a yellow Star of David and forced labor for Jews. From December 1941, the German authorities began to take able-bodied Jews from nearby towns and villages to Dworzec. In December 1941 about 300 Jews from Lubcz and 400 Jews from Zdzięcioł were taken to Dworzec. In March 1942 a ghetto and a labor camp were set up in Dworzec. In the following weeks the Germans transferred about 2,000 young Jews from the towns of Korelicze, Iwieniec, Rubieżewicze, as well as from Wołma, Naliboki, Mołczadź and other nearby villages, to the Dworzec camp. With 3,000-3,500 Jews incarcerated in the town, conditions deteriorated. At the end of the summer of 1942, some of the Jews from the ghetto were murdered. 370 (or 600, according to other sources) Jews from the ghetto were murdered in a forest along the Dworzec-Nowojelnia road, two kilometers north of the town. The ghetto of Dworzec was liquidated in December 1942. The last 2,500-3,000 Jews from the Dworzec ghetto and most Jews from the camp were killed in a forest near the village of Kućki, two kilometers north of Dworzec, along the Dworzec-Nowojelnia road. At least 50 Jews caught in the forests during the weeks after the December massacre were killed in the area of Dworzec. The last, several dozen, Jews from the Dworzec camp were killed in October 1943. Dworzec was liberated by the Red Army on July 8, 1944.