Koziany

The first Jews apparently settled in the area of Koziany in the 18th century. In 1921, this area became part of the reestablished Polish Republic. Under Polish rule, the name Koziany was applied both to the town of Koziany and to the nearby village. The census of 1921 recorded 165 Jews in the two settlements (seventy-seven Jews in the town of Koziany and eighty-eight Jews in the village of Koziany), or about 1/8 of the total population. By the time of the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population of the double settlement had increased to 300, by some estimates. In September 1939, the war began, and Koziany was occupied by the Soviets. In June 1941, several days after the Nazi invasion of the USSR, German troops entered the town. The occupiers seized most of the Jews' property (first and foremost their valuables and furs), and by October 1941 they had resettled the local Jews to nearby ghettos, such as those in Glębokie, Brasław, Szarkowszczyzna, and Jody. The Germans left only the "useful" Jews (i.e., medical personnel and some artisans) in the town, housing them in a makeshift ghetto. According to a list submitted by the local Belarusian authorities to their German overlords in Brasław, there were 169 Jews in Koziany in May 1942; in reality, their number was greater, as some were staying there "illegally". The Jews who had been transferred to nearby ghettos shared the fate of their other inmates. In December 1942, the Nazis shot some 700 people at the edge of the Koziany township. The Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK), in its final report of April 18, 1945, registered these victims as Jews. In all likelihood, there were both Jews and non-Jews among them. In November 1942, the Soviet partisans carried out an audacious military operation in the Koziany area, killing dozens of Germans (150 men, according to the partisans' report). The massacre of December 1942 appears to have been an act of reprisal, with the Nazis "punishing" the Jewish and non-Jewish local civilians. Kozyany was liberated by the Red Army on July 8, 1944.