Podbrodzie

Jews first settled in the village of Podbrodzie in the early 19th century. After 1862, the local Jewish community began to grow as a result of the construction of the Warsaw – St. Petersburg railway line, which passed through the village. Podbrodzie experienced an economic boom, both thanks to the new trade and transportation opportunities connected to the railway station, and by becoming a convenient summer resort for residents of Vilna. Nevertheless, some of the local Jews still made their living from cultivating small plots and other forms of subsistence agriculture. In the aftermath of World War I and the Polish-Lithuanian War of 1920-1921, Podbrodzie became part of Poland. Its economy grew thanks to the nearby Polish military base, which had to be supplied with food and provided with various services. Despite this improvement, a report compiled by the Yekopo (the Jewish Relief Committee for War Victims) in 1931 characterized thirty percent of the primary breadwinners in Podbrodzie as "luftmentchn" (literally, "air persons") – i.e., people with no fixed source of income. Jewish emigration, particularly to Latin America, went on throughout the 1930s. The poor economic conditions boosted political life in the town. In 1924 alone, some 100 shkalim (i.e., stamps that were sold to support the Zionist Organization) were bought in Podbrodzie. The Orthodox Agudat Yisrael party was popular among the older generation. In 1939, Podbrodzie was home to some 850 Jews, who made up one-third of the total population. In September 1939, World War II began, and Podbrodzie was occupied by the Soviet Union. In October 1939, the town was allotted to Lithuania, but in 1940 Lithuania itself was annexed by the USSR, and Podbrodzie came back under Soviet control. In June 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and Podbrodzie was occupied by the Wehrmacht. During the interregnum period, after the departure of the Soviets and before the arrival of the Germans, the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans (also known as the baltaraiščiai, "white armbanders") were the only power in the town. They shot eight Jews as suspected Soviet collaborators. Later, in July 1941, under German rule, they murdered some eighty additional Jews. At the end of the summer, a ghetto was set up in Podbrodzie, and the Jews who had survived the first massacres were concentrated there. According to eyewitness accounts, the ghetto Jews were warned by a friendly Pole of the impending resettlement of all the inmates to the so-called "Poligon" – a camp at the edge of Nowe Święciany, some 25 kilometers northeast of Podbrodzie. This resettlement was unequivocally interpreted as a prelude to mass murder. Dozens of Jews tried to escape or hide, but only a few succeeded. On September 26, 1941, the ghetto inmates were escorted to the "Poligon". On October 7-8, after the police had brought most of the would-be escapees to the camp, the Jews of Podbrodzie – together with those of Święciany, Nowe Święciany, Ignalino, and other settlements – were shot dead at the "Poligon". Podbrodzie was liberated by the Red Army in July 1944.