Swieciany

A permanent Jewish population in Święciany can be traced to the early 16th century. By the 17th century, the town had a Jewish community. Around the early 1880s, Święciany was home to some 4,500 Jews, who made up sixty-six percent of the total population. Two big conflagrations, in 1887 and 1891, undermined the prosperity of this thriving commercial and industrial center, and its Jewish population began to decline. In 1897, the year of the all-Russian census, there were only 3,793 Jews in Święciany (sixty-three percent of the total).

Święciany was home to a number of prominent Jewish figures. Isaac Jacob (Yitzhak Yaakov) Reines, a member of Hovevei Ziyon (a proto-Zionist movement) and the founder of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement, was a rabbi in Święciany in 1869-1885. The town is also the birthplace of Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), a famous American rabbi and the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. The Jewish socialist Arkadi Kremer, the "Father of the Bund" (a Jewish socialist party), was born in Święciany in 1865.

The years of World War I and the subsequent revolutionary upheavals (1914-1922) brought about changes in the Jewish (and non-Jewish) demographic makeup of Święciany: Many Jews from the prewar generation migrated overseas, while Jews from the countryside settled in the town. In 1922, Święciany and the surrounding area, as part of the so-called Central Lithuania, were annexed by Poland. Despite all these changes, Święciany preserved its prewar reputation as a center of the Chabad movement and a stronghold of the Bund. It continued to boast a dynamic political life. Remarkably, during the 1920s all the Zionist parties and movements – leftist, moderate, and right-wing ones – found adherents in Święciany, and they existed there side by side with the anti-Zionist Bund, the Jewish Orthodox organizations, and the underground Communist cells. Each group maintained its own cultural network – e.g., the Yiddishists, who were sponsored by the Bund, maintained a large Yiddish library in the town. There were also amateur theaters, musical ensembles, sports societies, etc.

In September 1939, World War II began, and Święciany was occupied by the Red Army. The Soviets suppressed all the non-Communist political activities and nationalized the businesses and factories. In 1940, with the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, Święciany was allotted to the Lithuanian SSR, and was renamed Švenčionys. At that time, hundreds of refugees from the German-occupied regions of Poland, almost all of them Jewish, swarmed to Święciany, swelling its Jewish population to about 4,000. Only a few of them, mainly Communist activists and Soviet functionaries, were able to evacuate eastward into Russia following the German invasion in late June 1941.

The Red Army retreated from Święciany on June 27, 1941, and on July 1 the town was finally occupied by the Wehrmacht. During the brief "interregnum" period, the old, pre-Soviet administration and police force were restored in Święciany. The police began to detain suspected Soviet collaborators. It arrested a total of forty people, almost all of them Jews, and shot them. Later in July, the Lithuanian police rounded up some 100 Jewish men and shot them, too, as alleged "Communists".

In late September 1941, the Germans moved the Jews of Święciany into the barracks of the former Polish military camp, popularly known as the Poligon (firing range), located near Nowe Święciany (Švenčionėliai in Lithuanian), 12 kilometers west of the town. Only the "specialists" (skilled workers) and the families of some of them, about 300 people in total, were left behind in Święciany, in a makeshift ghetto. On October 7-9, 1941, the inmates of the Poligon were shot.

In October-December 1941, the Święciany Ghetto was enlarged, and Jews from the surrounding area were moved into it. A new Jewish council was formed. In August 1942, there were 566 people in the ghetto, most of them artisans and workers. This period saw the beginning of a new wave of resettlements of Jews to Święciany, from the town of Widze and elsewhere. In March 1943, the Germans drew up two lists: one for the Jews destined to be moved to the Vilna Ghetto, and one for those to be transferred to the Kaunas Ghetto. On April 4, 1943, two trains departed from the railway station in Nowe Święciany. The first of these delivered Jews from the Święciany and Oszmiana Ghettos to Vilna. The second train was supposed to take the rest of the Jews of Święciany and Oszmiana to Kaunas; instead, it took them to the killing site in Ponary, near Vilna. Having become aware of the deception, many of the Jewish arrivals (some 600 people) tried to escape, but were killed on the run.

Święciany was liberated by the Red Army in July 1944.