Lakhva
Encyclopedia
Lakhva (Belarusian
and Russian
: Лахва, , ) is a small town in southern Belarus
, with a population of approximately 2100. Lakhva is considered to have been the location of one of the first, and possibly the first, Jewish ghetto uprising
s of the Second World War
.
and 200 kilometres south of Minsk
. It lies on the Smierc River, to the north of the Pripet Marshes
.
The town is located within Polesia
, a marshy region that has historically been at the confluence of various empires and states. As such, Lakhva has, at various points in its history, been under Lithuania
n, Polish
, Russia
n, Soviet
, German
, and Belarus
ian control.
. The estate was held jointly by the Radziwiłłs and the Kiszka
s, two powerful and significant Szlachta
(noble) families of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
.
The tax receipts and registers from the era, pertaining to the estate holdings of Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, indicate that grain farming played an unusually small role in the economy of the estate, as compared to other parts of the Grand Duchy. Given the marshy and wooded terrain, the local economy was instead dominated by fishing, hunting and forestry.
On March 23, 1588, the Estate of Łachwa was formally divided between Prince Radziwiłł and Jan Kiszka
, with the village falling within the Radziwiłł holdings. It is known that Lakhva became a town at some point during this period. The 1588 agreement between Radziwiłł and Kiszka dividing the estate refers to Lakhva as a village, but a document dated February 23, 1593 refers to it as a town and to its residents as townspeople. After 1593, archival documents consistently refer to Lakhva as a town. A tax receipt from 1596 indicates that the portions of the town subject to tax consisted of 7 houses in the town square, 60 street houses, 20 "poor dwellings" (chałupy nędzne), 2 craftsmen, 4 tenants without cattle, 4 vendors and one mill-wheel.
Due to conflicting royal charters, Lakhva fell within the administrative control of both the powiat
of Nowogródek
and the powiat of Pinsk
. Prince Radziwiłł apparently preferred to deal with the administration in Nowogródek, leading to protracted legal proceedings by the authorities in Pinsk. In 1600, King Sigismund III
settled the dispute by confirming that Lakhva belonged to Nowogródek.
The town remained within Poland until the Second Partition of Poland
in 1793, when it was absorbed into the Russian Empire
. Russian dominion over the area lasted until the end of the First World War
, when the region was briefly ceded to the German Empire
under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
. After the Polish-Soviet War
of 1919-21, Lakhva once again fell under Polish control, and was incorporated into the Polesie Voivodship of the Second Polish Republic
. Located only 18 kilometres from the boundary of the Soviet Union
, the region was policed by the Polish Border Protection Corps
.
Jewish settlement in Lakhva commenced in the latter half of the 17th century, reflecting an eastward migration of Jews during that period.
By the 20th century, Lakhva was a well-established shtetl
with a rapidly growing Jewish population. At the end of the First World War, Jews constituted a third of the town's population, but by the late 1930s, the Jewish population had doubled to 2300 (out of an overall population of 3800).
On September 17, 1939, Soviet
troops entered Lakhva, following the partition of Poland between Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
. As a result of the Soviet occupation, virtually all Jewish organizations ceased to function. Even though Soviet authorities closed or placed heavy restrictions on Jewish cultural and religious institutions, the Jewish population of Lakhva increased by 40% between 1939 and 1941, as Jewish refugees fled German-occupied areas to those lands incorporated into the Soviet Union.
. On April 1, 1942, the town's Jews were forcibly moved into a ghetto
consisting of two streets and 45 houses, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. The ghetto housed roughly 2,350 people, with approximately 1 square meter for every resident. The Ghetto was to be liquidated on September 3, 1942 and a Jewish underground resistance formed, led by Icchak Rochczyn. When the Germans entered the ghetto, an uprising occurred, and members of the ghetto underground attacked the Germans. This battle is believed to represent one of the first, and possibly the first, Jewish ghetto uprising
s of the Second World War
. Approximately 650 Jews, including Rochczyn, were killed in the fighting and by the flames, and another 500 or so Jews were taken to the execution pits and shot. Six German soldiers and eight German and Ukrainian policemen were also killed. The ghetto fence was breached, and approximately 1000 Jews were able to escape. Approximately 90 residents of the ghetto survived the war.
and Yalta Conference
, the Polish territories
that had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 were permanently annexed by the Soviet Union upon the conclusion of the Second World War
. Lakhva and its surrounding region were located east of the Curzon Line
, which largely formed the new border between new communist Polish state
and the Soviet Union. As such, the town was incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR
.
The survivors of the Lakhva ghetto did not return to the town, settling in Israel
and other countries instead. At present, there are few, if any, Jewish inhabitants in Lakhva, although a small memorial to the 1942 Jewish uprising was erected in 1994.
In 2000, Kopel Kolpanitsky, a survivor of the Lakhva ghetto, was one of six Holocaust survivors invited to speak at Yad Vashem
during the state ceremonies for Holocaust and Heroism Memorial Day
. Kolpanistky, who had been 16 years old at the time of the ghetto uprising and who managed to escape into the forest, recalled during the ceremony how his entire family was killed during the uprising.
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Лахва, , ) is a small town in southern Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, with a population of approximately 2100. Lakhva is considered to have been the location of one of the first, and possibly the first, Jewish ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europes during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants to concentration and extermination camps....
s of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Geography
Lakhva is located in the Luninets district of the Brest voblast, approximately 80 kilometres to the east of PinskPinsk
Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
and 200 kilometres south of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. It lies on the Smierc River, to the north of the Pripet Marshes
Pinsk Marshes
The Pinsk Marshes or Pripyat Marshes are a vast territory of wetlands along the Pripyat River and its tributaries from Brest, Belarus to Mogilev and Kiev ....
.
The town is located within Polesia
Polesia
Polesia is one of the largest European swampy areas, located in the south-western part of the Eastern-European Lowland, mainly within Belarus and Ukraine but also partly within Poland and Russia...
, a marshy region that has historically been at the confluence of various empires and states. As such, Lakhva has, at various points in its history, been under Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n, Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ian control.
1500s to 1900s
The earliest mentions of Lakhva are contained in records from the late 16th century pertaining to the Estate of Łachwa, a large private estate in what was then the Grand Duchy of LithuaniaGrand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
. The estate was held jointly by the Radziwiłłs and the Kiszka
Kiszka (family)
Kiszka was a szlachta family of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Polish and Czech descent...
s, two powerful and significant Szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
(noble) families of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
.
The tax receipts and registers from the era, pertaining to the estate holdings of Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, indicate that grain farming played an unusually small role in the economy of the estate, as compared to other parts of the Grand Duchy. Given the marshy and wooded terrain, the local economy was instead dominated by fishing, hunting and forestry.
On March 23, 1588, the Estate of Łachwa was formally divided between Prince Radziwiłł and Jan Kiszka
Jan Kiszka
Jan Kiszka was a politician, magnate, patron, and benefactor of Polish brethren in the 16th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Kiszka served as Carver of Lithuania from 1569, Royal Deputy Cupbearer of Lithuania and Elder of Samogitia from 1579, castellan of Vilnius from 1588, voivode of Brest...
, with the village falling within the Radziwiłł holdings. It is known that Lakhva became a town at some point during this period. The 1588 agreement between Radziwiłł and Kiszka dividing the estate refers to Lakhva as a village, but a document dated February 23, 1593 refers to it as a town and to its residents as townspeople. After 1593, archival documents consistently refer to Lakhva as a town. A tax receipt from 1596 indicates that the portions of the town subject to tax consisted of 7 houses in the town square, 60 street houses, 20 "poor dwellings" (chałupy nędzne), 2 craftsmen, 4 tenants without cattle, 4 vendors and one mill-wheel.
Due to conflicting royal charters, Lakhva fell within the administrative control of both the powiat
Powiat
A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as "county", although other terms are also sometimes used...
of Nowogródek
Navahradak
-Early history:First mentioned in the Sophian First Chronicle and Fourth Novgorod Chronicle in 1044 in relation to a war of Yaroslav I the Wise against Lithuanian tribes. It was also mentioned in the Hypatian Codex under 1252 as Novogorodok -Early history:First mentioned in the Sophian First...
and the powiat of Pinsk
Pinsk
Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
. Prince Radziwiłł apparently preferred to deal with the administration in Nowogródek, leading to protracted legal proceedings by the authorities in Pinsk. In 1600, King Sigismund III
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
settled the dispute by confirming that Lakhva belonged to Nowogródek.
The town remained within Poland until the Second Partition of Poland
Second Partition of Poland
The 1793 Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Targowica Confederation of 1792...
in 1793, when it was absorbed into the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Russian dominion over the area lasted until the end of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when the region was briefly ceded to the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
. After the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
of 1919-21, Lakhva once again fell under Polish control, and was incorporated into the Polesie Voivodship of the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
. Located only 18 kilometres from the boundary of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the region was policed by the Polish Border Protection Corps
Border Protection Corps
The Border Protection Corps was a Polish military formation that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits....
.
Jewish settlement
By the 20th century, Lakhva was a well-established shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
with a rapidly growing Jewish population. At the end of the First World War, Jews constituted a third of the town's population, but by the late 1930s, the Jewish population had doubled to 2300 (out of an overall population of 3800).
On September 17, 1939, Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
troops entered Lakhva, following the partition of Poland between Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the Soviet Union pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
. As a result of the Soviet occupation, virtually all Jewish organizations ceased to function. Even though Soviet authorities closed or placed heavy restrictions on Jewish cultural and religious institutions, the Jewish population of Lakhva increased by 40% between 1939 and 1941, as Jewish refugees fled German-occupied areas to those lands incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Jewish ghetto
Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and German troops occupied Lakhva on July 8, 1941, two weeks after the start of Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
. On April 1, 1942, the town's Jews were forcibly moved into a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
consisting of two streets and 45 houses, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. The ghetto housed roughly 2,350 people, with approximately 1 square meter for every resident. The Ghetto was to be liquidated on September 3, 1942 and a Jewish underground resistance formed, led by Icchak Rochczyn. When the Germans entered the ghetto, an uprising occurred, and members of the ghetto underground attacked the Germans. This battle is believed to represent one of the first, and possibly the first, Jewish ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europes during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants to concentration and extermination camps....
s of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Approximately 650 Jews, including Rochczyn, were killed in the fighting and by the flames, and another 500 or so Jews were taken to the execution pits and shot. Six German soldiers and eight German and Ukrainian policemen were also killed. The ghetto fence was breached, and approximately 1000 Jews were able to escape. Approximately 90 residents of the ghetto survived the war.
After the Second World War
As a result of the Tehran ConferenceTehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
and Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
, the Polish territories
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
that had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 were permanently annexed by the Soviet Union upon the conclusion of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Lakhva and its surrounding region were located east of the Curzon Line
Curzon Line
The Curzon Line was put forward by the Allied Supreme Council after World War I as a demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and Bolshevik Russia and was supposed to serve as the basis for a future border. In the wake of World War I, which catalysed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the...
, which largely formed the new border between new communist Polish state
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
and the Soviet Union. As such, the town was incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
.
The survivors of the Lakhva ghetto did not return to the town, settling in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and other countries instead. At present, there are few, if any, Jewish inhabitants in Lakhva, although a small memorial to the 1942 Jewish uprising was erected in 1994.
In 2000, Kopel Kolpanitsky, a survivor of the Lakhva ghetto, was one of six Holocaust survivors invited to speak at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
during the state ceremonies for Holocaust and Heroism Memorial Day
Yom HaShoah
Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah , known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews and five million others who perished in the...
. Kolpanistky, who had been 16 years old at the time of the ghetto uprising and who managed to escape into the forest, recalled during the ceremony how his entire family was killed during the uprising.