The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

Pre-1939: Podbrodzie (Yiddish: Podbrodzsh), town, Wilno województwo, Poland; 1939–1940: Pabradė, Švenčionys apskritis, Lithuania; 1940–1941: Pabradė/Pabrade, Sventsiany uezd, Lithuanian SSR; 1941–1944: Pabrade, Kreis Schwentschionys, Gebiet Wilna-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Pabradė, Švenčionys rajonas, Vilnius apskritis, Republic of Lithuania

Podbrodzie is located 47 kilometers (29 miles) northeast of Wilno. Nearly 1,000 Jews were living in the town on the eve of World War II, comprising about one third of the inhabitants.

A number of Jews attempted to flee with the retreating Soviet forces at the end of June 1941, but they came under attack from (Lithuanian) Red Army deserters who had joined with local Lithuanian partisans led by Edvardas Baranauskas, and only a few dozen Jews escaped successfully. The Lithuanian nationalists soon seized control of the town, and eight Jews were shot at the end of June for alleged collaboration with the Soviets, around the time of the arrival of the German army. Jews were subjected to plunder at the hands of the Lithuanians.

On July 15, 1941, the Lithuanian police arrested more than 60 Jews and took them to the mill to be shot. Only one of the victims, Velvel Abramovich, managed to escape from the grave site.¹

In the period from July to September, the German military commandant and the local Lithuanian authorities enforced a series of anti-Jewish measures in Podbrodzie. Jews were required to wear patches bearing the Star of David, initially in white and later in yellow fabric. They were forbidden from buying food products in the market or from having any contacts with the non-Jewish population. In July a Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established, which had to ensure that all German orders were carried out.² Among its members were Ben-Zion Vilian, Dr. Reyshevsky, Boris Blushinsky, Elye Likht, Yisroel Bratinsky, and Dovid Suzan.³

On September 1, 1941, all the town’s Jews were moved into an open ghetto located on two streets inhabited by Christians, described in the yizkor book as Arnianer and Boyareler Streets. Initially the Jews were permitted only to take with them what they could carry in their arms, but the Lithuanian mayor permitted Jews to move in all of their property.⁴ Some sources date the ghetto’s formation earlier, but this account matches with instructions issued by the office of the Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land to determine where ghettos were to be established by September 5.⁵ There was no Jewish police force. Local non-Jews moved into the vacated Jewish houses in Podbrodzie. At the time of the move into the ghetto, many Jews buried their valuables in their gardens and other hiding places or gave them to non-Jewish acquaintances for “safe-keeping.”

Aware of the complete elimination of the Jews in some Lithuanian towns, the Jews of Podbrodzie discussed how best to save themselves. They collected money to bribe the Lithuanian police to warn them of an impending Aktion. After learning of the murder of the Jews in nearby Niemenczyn on September 20, 1941, a number of Jews prepared to go into hiding or flee the Podbrodzie ghetto to the towns of neighboring Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien, where the situation was not yet so bad. On September 23, the authorities demanded a large “contribution” from the Jews, and then on September 26, expecting an Aktion, many Jews secretly left the ghetto or went into hiding. According to survivor Morris Engelson, a local official of Polish ethnicity had tipped off a Jew who had given him refuge before under the Soviet regime—and word then quickly spread through the ghetto.⁶

On that day, many local non-Jewish inhabitants, including teachers, postal officials, forest wardens, as well as criminal elements, were mobilized to assist the local police in clearing the ghetto. Once the Jews’ flight was detected, these local forces sealed off the ghetto, and some of the escapees were recaptured. Due to the mass flight, only just over 100 Jews were then rounded up by Lithuanian policemen, under the command of Antanas Žilėnas, which included also men brought in from Joniškis. Then the Jews of Podbrodzie were escorted to an overcrowded barracks at the military camp (firing range), also known as the Poligon transit camp, near Nowe Święciany. The able-bodied Jews had to march there on foot, and the sick and elderly were loaded onto carts. On October 7-8, 1941, these people were all shot, along with thousands of other Jews who had been gathered at the Poligon camp.

The Lithuanian police in Podbrodzie searched for the escaped Jews and shot any they found on the outskirts of town. Some Jewish escapees and their families were fortunate to have Christian friends who gave them food and shelter for several weeks, before assisting them with their journey across the border into Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien. A number of the Jewish escapees subsequently made their way to the ghettos in Kiemieliszki, Michaliszki, Świr, Łyntupy, and other places deeper in Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien, where they shared the fate of the Jews there. About 100 Jews from the town survived the war, mostly from among those who escaped successfully into the Soviet Union.

In May 1942, 400 Jews were brought to Podbrodzie from the Wilno ghetto and placed in a newly built labor camp; these Jews were used to work on a railway line for the German Giesler company. In 1943, those who were still alive were returned to Wilno.