Opsa

Jews first settled in Opsa in the 1790s. Their occupations were typical of that area: trade in timber, flax, grain, etc., as well as petty trade and crafts. The first interwar Polish census of 1921 recorded the presence of 334 Jews in the village, who made up forty-seven percent of the total population. In September 1939, World War II began, and Opsa was annexed by the USSR. In June 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and by the end of that month the area was occupied by German troops. At that time, there were some 300 Jews in Opsa. Even before the arrival of the Germans in the village, the local non-Jews formed a militia, which began to abuse the Jews, and even killed some of them. The non-Jews denounced a number of Jews who had collaborated with the Soviets in 1939-40 to the Germans; the Germans arrested these Jews, and subsequently shot them. Over the following months, the situation in Opsa was relatively quiet, and the Jewish population of the village even grew somewhat, as a result of the influx of refugees from elsewhere. In December 1941 (or January 1942), the Nazis transferred most of the Jews of Opsa to the ghettos of Brasław and Widze. Some fifty-sixty Jewish artisans and members of their families remained in Opsa, being confined to a ghetto. Nevertheless, in June 1942 the German authorities found out that there were some 300 Jews in the Opsa Ghetto. In September 1942, the Jewish artisans were moved to Brasław. According to some accounts, the Jews who were allegedly unfit to work – mostly elderly people, children, and women – were shot by the Germans on the spot during the relocation. Opsa was liberated by the Red Army on July 4, 1944.