Rozana

The earliest reference to the Jewish community of Różana dates to 1623. In 1897, the town's 3,599 Jews made up about 72 percent of its total population. In the interwar period, Różana was home to approximately 2,400 Jews, who comprised about two-thirds of the town’s population. Most of them were petty merchants and artisans, who availed themselves of the services of a free-loan society and a savings-and-loans association. Różana had a Jewish hospital. Local Jewish educational institutions included a Talmud Torah, a Hebrew-language school, and a Yiddish-language school. The Zionist parties, the Bund, and a small group of Communists were all active in the town, which also featured a training commune for Zionist pioneers. In 1919, Polish soldiers went on a looting spree and attacked the local Jews, murdering six people. After the beginning of the Soviet occupation in 1939, a Jew from Różana was appointed to the Belorussian Supreme Soviet in Minsk. Three Jewish factory owners and their families were deported into the Russian interior. The town’s Hebrew schools were shut down; private trade was abolished, and the artisans were organized in cooperatives. The Germans occupied Różana on June 24, 1941. The local Jews were ordered to wear yellow badges and perform forced labor. A Judenrat and Jewish Order Service were established. Two small groups of Różana Jews were shot in mid-July 1941. The Germans repeatedly imposed high ransoms and confiscated Jewish property. In August 1941, an unfenced ghetto was established in Różana. In the spring of 1942, several youths from the ghetto began to plan an escape into the forests. On November 2, 1942, the ghetto Jews were rounded up. At the same time, eight armed Jewish youths fled into the forests, but later returned. During the liquidation of the ghetto, some Jews who were trying to hide in the ghetto area or flee into the forests were caught and shot, but their exact murder site is unknown. The inmates of the ghetto were marched to the bunker camp in Wołkowysk, where some 20,000 local Jews were already incarcerated. Approximately 500 stragglers and escapees were shot on the way. On November 28, 1942, the Jews of Różana were transported by train from Wołkowysk to the Treblinka death camp, where all but three of them were shot. Różana was liberated by the Red Army on July 13, 1944.