Kiemieliszki

The first Jews settled in Kiemieliszki in the 1860s. The census of 1897 recorded 101 Jews in Kiemieliszki; this number amounted to 20 percent of the total population. After World War I and the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921 Kiemieliszki was incorporated into the independent state of Poland. At the begining of the 1930s about 35 Jewish families lived in the town. In September 1939 World War II began, and Kiemieliszki was occupied by the Soviets. Following the influx of Jews from western Poland, which was occupied by the Germans, and from other places, the Jewish population of this town reached 500. On June 25 (or June 27, according to other sources) Kiemieliszki was occupied by the German army. A ghetto was established in October 1941. In the fall-winter of 1941-1942 the German authorities, who at this time were closing small ghettos in the vicinity, transferred the survivors of the massacres in Niemenczyn (now Nemenčinė, Lithuania) and Podbrodzie (now Pabradė, Lithuania), as well as Jews from some villages, to the Kiemieliszki ghetto, with the result that the number of its inmates increased significantly. On the other hand, in early 1942 a number of Jewish youth were taken away for forced labor. On October 24, 1942 a Security Police detachment shot about 350 Jews of Kiemieliszki and from nearby villages in a forest near the town. On July 6 or 7, 1944 Kiemeliszki was liberated by the Red Army.