Davyd-Haradok ( be, Давыд-Гарадок, ; russian: Давид-Городок, pl, Dawidgródek) is a city in the southwestern

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

ian

voblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic script, Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian): , Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgy ...

(province) of Brest. It has 5991 inhabitants (2021 estimate).

History

Within the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was Partitions of Poland, partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire, Habsburg Empire of ...

, Davyd-Haradok was part of Brest Litovsk Voivodeship. In 1793, Davyd-Haradok was acquired by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in the course of the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian War ...

. The 18 March 1921

Peace of Riga The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet Wa ...

between

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

on one side and

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

on the other defined Davyd-Haradok (Dawidgródek) as part of Poland in the interwar period. The USSR retook the town in 1939. In 1940, more than a third of the total population was Jewish, 4,350 Jews. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Davyd-Haradok was under

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

from 7 July 1941 until 9 July 1944. On 10 August 1941, 3,000 Jews older than 14 years old were murdered in a mass execution perpetrated by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

unit consisting of Germans and their collaborators. Survivors were imprisoned in a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

where they were forced to perform forced labour and suffered harsh living conditions, many deaths. On 10 September 1942, 1,263 remaining inhabitants of the ghetto, the vast majority women and children, were murdered. About a hundred of them managed to escape to the forest.

References

External links

Photos on Radzima.org

Memorial for the Jewish population murdered during World War 2
* Cities in Belarus Shtetls Populated places in Brest Region Stolin District Brest Litovsk Voivodeship Mozyrsky Uyezd Polesie Voivodeship Holocaust locations in Belarus {{Belarus-geo-stub