Nowe Swieciany

The settlement of Nowe Święciany emerged only in the 1850s, following the opening of the Święciany railway station on the Warsaw-St. Petersburg line (then still under construction), not far from the town of Święciany. Jews were among the earliest inhabitants of the new settlement. In the 1860s, there was a Jewish community in Nowe Święciany. In 1897, the town was home to 540 Jews, or forty percent of the total population. The economic rise of the settlement was impeded by a fire in 1901. In 1922, in the aftermath of World War I and the Polish-Lithuanian conflict, Nowe Święciany became part of the Second Polish Republic. Its economy was in decline, because of the virtual disconnection of the Vilna-St. Petersburg (Leningrad) railroad and the nationalization of the forests by the Polish government in 1929. In September 1939, World War II broke out, and the town of Nowe Święciany was occupied by the Red Army. In October 1940, after the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, the area of Święciany, including Nowe Święciany, was handed over to the new "Lithuanian Soviet Republic." At this time, there were more than 950 Jews in the town, comprising twenty percent of its total population. On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out, and on June 24 the first German tanks rolled into Nowe Święciany. In the first days after the Red Army's retreat from the area, the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans arrested Jews and alleged Communists and shot them; at least eight Jews were shot at the so-called "Poligon", the area of the former Polish military base (a mile west of Nowe Święciany). In July 1941, after the situation had stabilized somewhat, a Jewish council was established in the town. According to an eyewitness account, pro-Nazi Lithuanian volunteers arrested and shot fifty Jewish men on July 22, 1941. In late September 1941, the local police, assisted by volunteers (mainly former Lithuanian partisans), transferred all the Jews of Nowe Święciany, some 300-400 people, to the barracks at the "Poligon", where a temporary camp had been set up. Jews from the whole area of Święciany – including those of Święciany itself, Ignalino, Podbrodzie, Daugieliszki, and other settlements – were assembled in this camp. On October 7-9, all these Jews, including those from Nowe Święciany, were shot by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators. Nowe Święciany was liberated by the Red Army in July 1944.