Nowa Wilejka

Nowa Wilejka (Novo-Vileisk in Russian) sprang up in the second half of the 19th century, as a workers' settlement east of Vilnius. Its residents serviced the two railroads passing through the city: the Warsaw-St. Petersburg line and the Libau-Romny line. The population of Novo-Vileisk was multi-ethnic, and some Jews also settled there. In 1897, the town was home to 346 Jews, who made up about ten percent of the total population. On the eve of World War I, Novo-Vileisk was one of the most important centers of heavy industry in Lithuania, and it had a population of more than 10,000, about 1,000 of whom were Jews. In 1922-39, the town was part of independent Poland, and was renamed Nowa Wilejka. In September 1939, World War II began, and the town was occupied by the Soviets. In late October 1939, Nowa Wilejka, as part of the Vilnius region, was handed over to Lithuania. However, units of the Red Army remained stationed in the town right up to the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941. The handover of Nowa Wilejka to Lithuania was accompanied by a pogrom, which was perpetrated by the local Poles, who made up the majority of the town's population. German troops entered Nowa Wilejka on June 24, 1941, the third day of the Nazi invasion. On September 22, 1941, the day of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), the Jews of Nowa Wilejka and of some other nearby settlements were killed in Wieluciany, east of the town. After the massacre in Wieluciany, a labor camp was established in Nowa Wilejka, and Jews from all over the Lithuanian-Belorussian border region were moved into it; thus, 124 Jews from Oszmiana alone were brought to the camp in March 1943. In July that year, the camp was liquidated, and its last inmates were killed in Ponary, near Vilnius. In June 1944, the Nazis brought Soviet POWs to Wieluciany and ordered them to destroy the bodies in the mass graves, as part of the so-called "Aktion 1005." Nowa Wilejka was liberated by the Red Army on July 13, 1944.