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

Pre-1939: Świr (Yiddish: Svir), town, Wilno województwo, Poland; 1939–1941: Svir’, raion center, Vileika oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Swir, initially Rayon center, Gebiet Wilejka, Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien, then from April 1, 1942, Kreis center, Gebiet Wilna-Land, Generalkommissariat Litauen; post-1991: Svir’, Miadzel’ raen, Hrodna voblasts’, Republic of Belarus

Świr is located 37 kilometers (23 miles) southeast of Święciany. Around 800 Jews were living in Świr on the eve of World War II. Under Soviet occupation, between September 1939 and June 1941, more than 1,000 people were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan from the Svir’ raion, including a number of Jews.

German forces entered Świr on June 24, 1941. They soon established a local administration and police force, recruited, initially, mainly from among ethnic Poles. The new authorities imposed a series of anti-Jewish measures, including the wearing of yellow patches bearing the Star of David, a ban on using the sidewalks, and an order for Jews to sweep the streets on Sundays. A four-member Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established, headed by Chaim Reznik. The Judenrat had to meet regular demands for money, fuel, and clothes by the Germans and organize the required forced labor details. Jews performed forced labor mostly in agriculture on the surrounding estates.

The Germans established a ghetto in Świr in early November 1941. Initially, it was not surrounded by a fence, and subsequently its area was diminished to a few houses around the synagogue, probably following a major transfer Aktion. Survivor Rachil Schper states that the ghetto was in the poorest part of town and the Germans forced all the Jews to relocate there, once the non-Jews had moved out. The synagogue was converted into a warehouse, and the holy books were burned in front of the Jews.¹

On December 1, 1941, the Judenrat was ordered to arrest 12 young Jews, who were then murdered by the Germans. In January 1942, Gite Mular, who had escaped from the Wilno ghetto, arrived in Świr. She was 1 of more than 100 Jewish refugees who had fled to Świr from Lithuania, following the massacres there in the summer and fall of 1941. In early 1942, the local police, by now composed mostly of Belorussians, arrested these refugees. The authorities subsequently released the prisoners, on condition that they leave the town.²

In February 1942, the Germans ordered the Judenrat to supply several hundred Jews for the forced labor camp at Žiežmariai in Lithuania. When some of the Jews went into hiding to avoid being deported, the Judenrat threatened to take their relatives instead. According to The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettos, 200 Jews in total were sent.³

In April 1942, Rayon Swir was transferred from Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien to Generalkommissariat Litauen. At this time, Lithuanians came in and took over the local administration and local police. Many Jews feared attacks by the Lithuanian police, and some fled east from Świr to other ghettos and labor camps, which were to remain within Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien. 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. In the summer of 1942, the Wilno Department of Labor conducted a census that registered 817 Jews living in the Świr ghetto at just over 50 separate addresses on seven or eight streets.⁴

On September 8, 1942, the Wilno Department of Labor agreed to the transfer of 100 Jewish laborers from the ghetto in Świr to Wilno, for them to work on construction tasks for a company called “Haus und Wohnung” (House and Apartment), provided that their food rations and guarding were assured.⁵

Rasia HaYisraeli recalled, after the war, the mood in the Świr ghetto as the fall of 1942 approached. There were many signs that a liquidation Aktion was impending, and people could not sleep. “The situation was morbid; the prospect of escape was very slim. The ghetto was like a tightly shut cage. In spite of the danger, a few were able to arrange hiding places in the villages around the town.” Her aunt prepared bags with food in case the family had to escape at a moment’s notice.⁶ Others prepared hiding places inside the ghetto, to avoid being taken in the next roundup.

At some time in the second half of 1942, most probably in October, most of the remaining inmates of the Świr ghetto (about 500 people) were transferred to the Michaliszki ghetto. Only 60 specialized Jewish workers then remained in Świr.⁷ According to a document from the office of the Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land, dated November 6, 1942, at that time [End Page 1129] Świr was deemed to be a subghetto of the larger ghetto in Michaliszki.⁸ Effectively it now more resembled a small forced labor camp.

In a strictly confidential letter on March 9, 1943, the Gebietskommissar Wilna-Land, Horst Wulff, informed the Organisation Todt and the Giesler construction company that there was an order calling for the transfer of all Jews working in these companies to be returned to the ghettos in Oszmiana, Świr, Michaliszki, and Święciany by March 22, 1943. He also recommended in his memorandum not to protest against this order.⁹ This order probably signaled the evacuation of the last Jews from Świr.

At the end of March 1943, the Germans liquidated the Michaliszki ghetto. Some of the Jews were transferred to the Wilno ghetto, others were sent to forced labor camps in Lithuania, and some of the Jews from Michaliszki, including also Jews from Świr, were among about 2,500 Jews from the ghettos east of Wilno who were murdered at Ponary in early April.

A few Jews from Świr managed to escape from the ghetto or from other ghettos and labor camps subsequently. Some, such as Rachil Schper, managed to live on the Aryan side, as their looks enabled them to pass as non-Jews, and a few survived in hiding in the vicinity of Świr.¹⁰ Others escaped to join the Soviet partisans in the forests, especially from the Wilno ghetto. In the summer of 1945, only about 40 Jews returned to Świr, some from Germany, having been deported to Estonia and then Stutthof from the Wilno ghetto.