Dolhinow
DOLGINOVO (Pol. Dołhinów), town in Molodechno district, Belarus. It passed from Poland to Russia in 1793; was within Poland from 1921 to 1939; and was then in the Belorussian SSR. Jews settled there at the beginning of the 16th century but only formed a community in the 17th, numbering 485 in 1667. Apart from petty trade and crafts, the Jews also exported agricultural products through Danzig. A pogrom in 1881 resulted in the looting and destruction of shops and homes. The community numbered 1,194 in 1847; 2,559 in 1897 (out of a total population of 3,551); and 1,747 in 1921 (out of 2,671). During the interwar years, the loss of the agricultural hinterland (Russia) resulted in the decline of the economy. Some Jews earned a living by smuggling goods across the border with the Soviet Union. Most Jewish children studied in a Hebrew Tarbut school. In September 1939 the Soviets abolished all Jewish organizations and parties and nationalized the economy
Holocaust Period
The Jewish population of the city had increased to nearly 5,000 in 1941. From the outbreak of World War II in 1939 until the German-Soviet war the town was under Soviet occupation. On June 28, 1941, the German army captured it. In August 1941, 22 men, including the rabbi of the community, were murdered by the Germans. On March 3, 1942, in the first mass Aktion 1,500 Jews were shot to death and cremated on the outskirts of the town. On May 1, 1942, a ghetto was set up. During the Shavuot festival that year, the entire community was wiped out, except for 500 craftsmen who were spared from immediate death. In this period groups of Jews fled to the forests and joined the partisans operating in Nalibocka Puszcza. The few remaining members of the community were murdered in September 1942. Only about 200 persons survived the war as soldiers of the Soviet army drafted in the spring of 1941, others as members of partisan units, and a number who had gone into hiding. The community was not refounded after World War II
From: Jewish Virtual Library
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