Plissa

The first Jews settled in the village of Plissa in the late 18th or early 19th Century. In 1897, there were 366 Jews in Plissa. In 1921, when the village was incorporated into the newly independent Second Polish Republic, it was home to 302 Jews, and the community was growing. In September 1939, World War II began, and the village was annexed to the USSR. In June 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and ten days later, in early July, the Germans occupied Plissa. Anti-Jewish decrees, including the imposition of forced labor, followed. In August 1941, the Germans arrested 18 "prominent" members of the local Jewish community and shot them in some nearby forest. In the fall of 1941, a ghetto was established in Plissa. On June 1, 1942, most of the Jews of Plissa were murdered near the town. Jews from nearby villages were probably also killed in this massacre. Several Jewish craftsmen and their families were spared and transferred to the Glębokie Ghetto, where they shared the fate of the local Jews. Some Jews managed to flee and join the Soviet partisans. Plissa was liberated by the Red Army on July 2, 1944.