Šarkaŭščyna

History

Within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Sharkawshchyna was part of Vilnius Voivodeship. In 1793, the town was acquired by the Russian Empire as a result of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1921 until 1939, Szarkowszczyzna, as it was known in Polish, was part of the Second Polish Republic, administratively located in the Wilno Voivodeship. At the start of World War II, in September 1939, Szarkowszczyzna was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. There were an estimated 1,500 Jews on the eve of the war. Sharkawshchyna was occupied by Nazi Germany on 6–9 July 1941 and administered as a part of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien of Reichskommissariat Ostland. Between September and November, about 1,700 Jews were rounded up and confined to the local ghetto with severe overcrowding problems. Many died of disease and starvation. At the end of March 1942, the Germans divided the ghetto into two parts: one for "necessary workers" and another ghetto for the others. On 18 June, the German police and local collaborators surrounded the ghetto and opened fire on the ghetto. 700 residents who were unable to successfully escape were escorted away and shot. The Germans later recaptured 300 escapees and shot them. As many as 500 of those who escaped joined the Jews of the nearby ghetto at Głębokie. This was used by several Holocaust researchers from the "Israel school" of Holocaust research, as a study case showing the futility of Jewish resistance in those years.