Dziatlava or Dyatlovo ( be, Дзятлава, lt, Zietela, pl, Zdzięcioł, russian: italic=yes, Дзенціолъ until the 1870s, thereafter ''Дятлово'', yi, זשעטל, Zhetl) is a town in

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 R ...

in the

Grodno Region Grodno Region ( pl, Grodzieńszczyzna) or Grodno Oblast or Hrodna Voblasts ( be, Гродзенская вобласць, ''Hrodzienskaja vobłasć'', , ''Haradzienščyna''; russian: Гродненская область, ''Grodnenskaya oblast' ...

, about 165 km southeast of

Grodno Grodno (russian: Гродно, pl, Grodno; lt, Gardinas) or Hrodna ( be, Гродна ), is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish b ...

. The population was 7,700 in 2016.

History

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Zietela was first referenced in documents from 1498 when it was granted by the King of Poland

John I Albert John I Albert ( pl, Jan I Olbracht; 27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland from 1492 until his death in 1501 and Duke of Głogów (Glogau) from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty, the s ...

to Prince

Konstanty Ostrogski Konstanty Iwanowicz Ostrogski (c. 1460 – 10 August 1530; lt, Konstantinas Ostrogiškis; uk, Костянтин Іванович Острозький, translit=Kostiantyn Ivanovych Ostrozkyi; be, Канстантын Іванавіч Ас� ...

, who later built a wooden castle there.

17th century

In the 17th century, Zietela was owned by

Lew Sapieha Lew Sapieha ( lt, Leonas Sapiega; be, Леў Сапега or Lieŭ Sapieha; 4 April 1557 – 7 July 1633) was a nobleman and statesman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He became Great Secretary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1580, Gr ...

, who ordered a Catholic church to be erected on the main city square. The church was consecrated in 1646, renovated after a fire in 1743 and still stands.

18th century

During the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

of the anti-Swedish alliance,

Peter I of Russia Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

visited Zietela and stayed there for a week in January 1708. In the 18th century, the town was owned by Stanisław Sołtyk, who built a Baroque residence there in 1751. After the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

, until the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the town was within 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

Grodno Governorate The Grodno Governorate, (russian: Гро́дненская губе́рнiя, translit=Grodnenskaya guberniya, pl, Gubernia grodzieńska, be, Гродзенская губерня, translit=Hrodzenskaya gubernya, lt, Gardino gubernija, u ...

, district of

Slonim Slonim ( be, Сло́нім, russian: Сло́ним, lt, Slanimas, lv, Sloņima, pl, Słonim, yi, סלאָנים, ''Slonim'') is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus, capital of the Slonimski rajon. It is located at the junction of the Ščar ...

.JewishGen Communities Database for Dzyatlava, Belarus
/ref>

20th century

Between

and

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 ...

, Zdzięcioł (now Dziatlava) belonged to the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. It was the seat of

Gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

Zdzięcioł in Nowogródek Voivodeship. The population was composed predominantly of

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...

. The Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, and stationed in the Voivodeship area until the outbreak of their own war with Germany in June 1941. After the Soviet rapid retreat, and several months of Nazi ad hoc persecution, on February 22, 1942 the new German authorities officially created

Zdzięcioł Ghetto The Dzyatlava Ghetto, Zdzięcioł Ghetto, or Zhetel Ghetto (in Yiddish) was a Nazi ghetto in the town of Dzyatlava, Western Belarus during World War II. After several months of Nazi ad-hoc persecution that began after the launch of Operation Bar ...

. During

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, about 3,000–5,000 Jews were killed near the town during the

Dzyatlava massacre , location = Zdzięcioł (now, Dzyatlava) German-occupied Poland, present-day Belarus , date = April 30, 1942 August 10, 1942 , incident_type = Shootings by automatic and semi-automatic weapons , perpetrators = SS, Order P ...

of 1942 by a German death squad aided by the Lithuanian and the

Belarusian Auxiliary Police The Belarusian Auxiliary Police ( be, Беларуская дапаможная паліцыя, Biełaruskaja dapamožnaja palicyja; german: Weißruthenische Schutzmannschaften, or Hilfspolizei) was a collaborationist paramilitary force establi ...

battalions. The old Jewish cemetery is considered a minor landmark.

Lithuanian heritage

Being 80 kilometres south of present-day Lithuania, Zietela's environs had been known by linguists as the outermost indigenous Lithuanian speaking "island" apart from the contiguous Lithuanian language territory. The Lithuanian speakers spoke a unique dialect, known as the "Zietela dialect"; it has been speculated that the ancestors of its speakers might have been Lithuanized

Jotvingians Yotvingians (also called: Sudovians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians; Yotvingian: ''Jotvingai''; lt, Jotvingiai, ; lv, Jātvingi; pl, Jaćwingowie, be, Яцвягі, ger, Sudauer) were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prus ...

. It drew the attention by many prominent linguists, such as Christian Schweigaard Stang,

Vladimir Toporov Vladimir Nikolayevich Toporov (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Топоро́в; 5 July 1928 in Moscow5 December 2005 in Moscow) was a leading Russian philologist associated with the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school. His wife was ...

Kazimieras Būga Kazimieras Būga (; November 6, 1879 – December 2, 1924) was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language. He was born at Pažiegė, near Dusetos, then part of the Russia ...

and

Juozas Balčikonis Juozas Balčikonis (24 March 1885 in Ėriškiai, Panevėžys District – 5 February 1969 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian linguist and teacher, who contributed to the standardization of the Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern ...

. In 1886, 1,156 people in nearby villages declared themselves Lithuanians, however, the real number might have been much greater.Gediminas Zemlickas, "Paminklas mirusiai ðnektai (2)" onument to the Extinct Dialect Lietuviø kalbos instituto Kalbos istorijos ir dialektologijos skyriaus darbuotojai doc. dr. Danguolë Mikulënienë ir dr. Aloyzas Vidugiris. At present the Lithuanian population is virtually extinct.

People

Ivan Karizna Ivan Karizna is a French cellist. He was bronze medalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 and ended 5th in the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition for cello. Biography Ivan Karizna was born in Dzyatlava, Belarus and got interested ...

, cellist * Jacob ben Wolf Kranz of Dubno, the "Dubner

maggid A maggid ( he, מַגִּיד), also spelled as magid, is a traditional Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A chaplain of the more scholarly sort is called a '' darshan'' (). The title of '' ...

" (1741–1804) *

Yisrael Meir Kagan Rabbi Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan (January 26, 1838 – September 15, 1933), known popularly as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book on lashon hara, who was also well known for the Mishna Berurah, his book on ritual law, was an influential Lithuan ...

(Chofetz Chayim), 1839–1933 * Zvi Yosef Resnick,

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and

rosh yeshivah Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

(1841–1912) *

Mnachem Risikoff Mnachem (Mendel) HaKohen Risikoff (1866–1960), was an orthodox rabbi in Russia and the United States, and a prolific author of scholarly works, written in Hebrew. Risikoff used a highly stylized and symbolic pen-name, יאמהדנונחהי� ...

, rabbi and scholar (1866–1960), born in Dzyatlava * Baruch Sorotzkin (1917-1979) * Tamara Lazakovich, European All-Around Co-Champion (1971) and Olympic medalist (1972) in

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

References

External links

Info of Dziatłava

Photos on Radzima.org

(in Russian) Dyatlovo information portal

ארגון יוצאי ז'טל ודורות ההמשך
*
Dyatlovo old website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dziatlava Towns in Belarus Populated places in Grodno Region Nowogródek Voivodeship (1507–1795) Slonimsky Uyezd Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939) Shtetls Holocaust locations in Belarus Dzyatlava District