MICHALISZKI
Pre-1939: Michaliszki, town, Wilno województwo, Poland; 1939–1941: Mikhalishki, Vileika oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: initially Michalischki, Kreis Swir, Gebiet Wilejka, Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien, then from April 1, 1942, Gebiet Wilna-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Mikhalishki, Astravets raen, Hrodna voblasts’, Republic of Belarus
Michaliszki is located 56 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Wilno. In 1897, the Jewish population of the town was 951, out of a total of 1,224. Before World War II, there were about 800 Jews living there.
German forces captured the town on June 24, 1941. As the Germans arrived, many Jews fled into the forests. The non-Jewish local inhabitants exploited this opportunity to loot Jewish property. In response to a German order, warning that Jews who did not come home by a certain date would be punished, most of the fugitive Jews returned.
In the summer of 1941, the Germans ordered the chairman of the existing Jewish community (gmina) in Michaliszki, Ora Bleicher, to organize a Jewish Council (Judenrat). However, according to Bleicher’s account, when it came to an [End Page 1092] election, nobody wanted the position, as they were all afraid of the onerous responsibilities.1 Nevertheless, a Judenrat was formed, which included the following as members: Yitzhak Świrski (chairman), Josef Chit, Szyjn Miller, Salmun Baruch, Salome Rabinowicz, and Szymon Eystein.
A ghetto was established in Michaliszki by October 1941 on two unpaved streets near the center of town. The spaces between the houses were boarded up with wooden planks, and there was only one exit to the ghetto, guarded internally by the Jewish Police and externally by non-Jewish local policemen. Inside the ghetto, several families had to share a single dwelling.2 The Jews who performed forced labor left the ghetto area on a daily basis. The Jews worked mostly in the construction or reconstruction of bridges, roads, and railroad tracks, in mills, and in electrical companies. In addition, they had to clear the rubble and snow from the roads. Some Jews were also sent away from the ghetto for a period to cut lumber in the forests.
On April 1, 1942, the region including Michaliszki was transferred from Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien to Generalkommissariat Litauen and became part of Gebiet Wilna-Land. At this time, Lithuanians came in and took over the local administration and local police. Among the restrictions imposed officially on the Jews living in the ghettos in this region were a curfew from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and a prohibition on any personal or economic contacts with non-Jews.3 At the end of May 1942, there were 787 Jews in the Michaliszki ghetto: 363 men and 424 women.4 In July 1942, a total of 35 prisoners from the Michaliszki ghetto were sent to work in the eastern branch of the Włokiennicze cardboard company.5
A document dated November 6, 1942, from the office of the Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land, noted that Michaliszki had been recognized as a main ghetto, now subordinated to the administration of the Judenrat in Wilno, and that it had two subghettos, one in Łyntupy and a second in Świr.6 According to one report, some of the Jews capable of work may have been transferred to the Michaliszki ghetto from Kiemieliszki and Bystrzyca when those ghettos were liquidated at the end of October.7 Other Jews arrived in Michaliszki after fleeing from Aktions in nearby ghettos, including Świr. Among them was Yehoshua Swidler, who was told by the Judenrat on November 7 that he must leave Michaliszki, as German orders barred the absorption of refugees from other towns. However, instead, he was added to the next transport of laborers to the ghetto in Wilno.8 At the end of 1942, about 500 inmates of the Świr ghetto were transferred to the Michaliszki ghetto. Only 60 “specialized” Jewish workers then remained in Świr.9
In a strictly confidential letter dated March 9, 1943, the Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land informed the Organisation Todt and the Giesler construction company of an order calling for the transfer of all the Jews working in these companies back to the ghettos in Oszmiana, Świr, Michaliszki, and Święciany by March 22, 1943. He also recommended in this memorandum that no appeal should be made against this order.10
In early March 1943, a group of young Jews from the Michaliszki ghetto managed to escape to the forests with the aim of joining the anti-German partisans.11
At the end of March, the Germans liquidated the Michaliszki ghetto. H. Kruk records that 400 wagons with Jews and their possessions arrived in Wilno from Michaliszki. They were accommodated temporarily on Strashun and Oszmiana Streets. Then in early April, many of the Michaliszki Jews were added to a train containing other Jews from the region, reputedly headed for Kaunas. Instead, the train went only to Ponary, where all the Jews were shot. The train contained Jews from the ghettos of Soly, Oszmiana, Gudogaj, and Ostrowiec, as well as Michaliszki, about 2,500 in total. Only about 50 Jews from this transport managed to escape. A number of Jews from Michaliszki, however, were selected for labor and remained in the Wilno ghetto or were sent to various labor camps subordinated to it, including the camp at Vievis.12
SOURCES
Information on the ghetto in Michaliszki can be found in these publications: Arūnas Bubnys, “The Fate of the Jews in the Švenšionys, Oshmyany and Svir Regions (1941–1943),” in Irena Guzenberg et al., eds., The Ghettos of Oshmyany, Svir, Švenčionys Regions: Lists of Prisoners, 1942 (Vilnius: Valstybinis Vilniaus Gaono žydu muziejus, 2009), pp. 83–118, here pp. 114–115; Shalom Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorussia during World War II (Amsterdam: Harwood, 1998); Christoph Dieckmann, “Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941–1944” (Ph.D. diss., Universität Freiburg, 2002), section F.1.8.1; Guy Miron, ed., The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2010), pp. 464–465; Yitzhak Arad, Ghetto in Flames: The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust (New York: Holocaust Library, 1982); and Herman Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939–1944 (New Haven, CT: YIVO, 2002).
Relevant documentation can be found in these archives: BA-DH (ZM 1641, A 23); LCVA (R 614-1-736, R 626-l-124, R 677-1-46); USHMM; VHF (e.g., # 30396, 35318, 39703); YIVO (RG-104 I, no. 611); and YVA (e.g., M-1/E/286).
NOTES
1. YVA, M-1/E/286, testimony of Ore Bleicher, as cited by Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorus sia, pp. 252–253.
2. VHF, # 39703, testimony of Martin Kulbak; # 35318, testimony of Abraham Rudnick.
3. Anordnung Betr.: Ghettoisierung der Juden, issued by Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land, May 13, 1942, reproduced in Guzenberg et al., The Ghettos of Oshmyany, Svir, p. 130.
4. LCVA, R 743-2-10274, pp. 31 and verso, as cited by Bubnys, “The Fate of the Jews,” p. 114.
5. LCVA, R 626-l-124, p. 48.
6. Ibid., R 614-1-736, p. 299.
7. YIVO, RG-104 I, no. 611, report of Shmuel Kalmanovich, as cited by Dieckmann, “Deutsche Besatzungspolitik,” section F.1.8.1.
8. Yitzhak Siegelman, ed., Sefer Kobylnik (Haifa: Va’ad Yozei Kobylnik b’Israel, Committee of Former Residents of Kobylnik in Israel, 1967), p. 151, as cited by Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorussia, p. 151.
9. BA-DH, ZM 1641, A 23, p. 129 (the case of Gite Mular); Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorus sia, p. 86.
10. LCVA, R 677-1-46, p. 5.
11. Kruk, The Last Days, p. 494.
12. Ibid., p. 534; BA-DH, ZM 1641, A 23, p. 129 (the case of Gite Mular); Arad, Ghetto in Flames, p. 359; VHF, # 39703, # 35318, and # 30396, testimony of Jack Wysoki.
