Miadziol Nowy

The first Jews settled in the town of Miadzioł Nowy (now part of the village of Miadzel, Belarus) in the first half of the 19th century. Following the passage of the Russian "May Laws" of 1882, which expelled Jews from rural localities, the Jewish population of Miadzioł underwent rapid growth. According to the census of 1897, the town was home to 436 Jews. World War I and the ensuing Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21 wrecked the precarious local economy. In 1919, only sixty Jewish families lived in Miadzioł Nowy, and by 1921 – the year when the village became part of independent Poland – this number had shrunk to thirty-five. In September 1939, World War II began, and Miadzioł Nowy was occupied by the Soviets. Nationalization of the businesses followed; the town's only school had to adopt the Soviet curriculum, and Belarusian became the language of instruction. In June 1941, on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR, there were 170-200 Jews in the town. Miadzioł Nowy was occupied by the Wehrmacht on July 2, 1941. The occupiers issued a slew of anti-Jewish decrees, including the requirement to wear a yellow Star of David on the clothing, a prohibition on leaving the town, and the imposition of forced labor. In September 1941, the Germans shot a group of 35-50 local Jews near the Mkhi Forest. In November that year, a ghetto was established in Miadzioł Nowy. In August 1942, rumors began to circulate about the impending liquidation of the Miadzioł Nowy Ghetto. In September that year, some 70-80 Jews escaped from the ghetto into the forests. On September 21, the Germans and the Belarusian auxiliary policemen rounded up all the remaining Jews of Miadzioł Nowy and nearby Miadzioł Stary, separated fifty "specialists" (skilled artisans) and their families, and then shot seventy people in the Bor Forest. Of those Jews who had managed to flee, some twenty were tracked down in the forests and shot by the Germans and the local policemen over the following days. Ninety Jewish workers from Miadzioł Nowy and Miadzioł Stary remained in the ghetto. In October 1942, Yakov Segalchik, a local Jew who was serving with the Soviet partisans at the time, entered the ghetto. On behalf of his unit, he urged the "specialists" to flee with him and join the partisans. Only when Segalchik began to speak Yiddish did they believe him and agree to flee. Not all the fugitives joined the partisan unit; some crossed the front lines to the Soviet side, while others tried to survive in the forest on their own, having established a family camp. Of the latter group, many were eventually killed by Polish nationalist partisans from the AK (Home Army). Miadzioł Nowy was liberated by the Red Army on July 4, 1944.