{{Short description|Nazi ghetto in occupied Belarus}} {{Infobox holocaust event | name = Słonim Ghetto | image = | image_size = | image_alt = | caption = | image_map = {{location mark|float=center|image=WW2-Holocaust-Poland.PNG |width=250 |x%=76.6 |y%=34.3 |label='''{{small|Slonim}}''' |position=right |mark_width=7 }} | map_caption = Slonim location during the Holocaust in Eastern Europe | pushpin_map = Belarus | pushpin_map_width = 250 | pushpin_label = Slonim Ghetto | pushpin_label_position = right | pushpin_map_caption = Slonim in modern-day Belarus | coordinates = {{Coord|53|05|49|N|25|19|29|E|display=inline,title}} | location = Slonim, Western Belarus, German-occupied Poland | incident_type = Imprisonment, slave labor, mass killings | organizations = SS, Einsatzgruppe C, Belarusian Auxiliary Police, Wehrmacht | executions_location = Pietrolewicze, Czepielów <ref name="karta"/> | victims = 22,000–25,000 Jews<ref name="count">{{cite book |chapter=Destruction and Resistance: The Jewish Shtetl of Slonim, 1941–44 |author=Hans-Heinrich Nolte |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-252-02600-4 |pages=29–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHiCuLQx168C&q=Slonim |title=The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union |editor=Robert W. Thurston |editor2=Bernd Bonwetsch}}</ref> }} The '''Słonim Ghetto''' ({{langx|pl|getto w Słonimiu}}; {{langx|be|Слонімскае гета}}; {{langx|de|Ghetto von Slonim}}; {{langx|yi|סלאָנים}}) was a Nazi German ghetto established in 1941 by the SS in Slonim, Western Belarus, German-occupied Poland during World War II. Prior to 1939, the town (Słonim) was part of the Second Polish Republic. The town was captured in late June 1941 by the Wehrmacht in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa. Anti-Jewish measures were promptly put into place, and a barb-wire surrounded ghetto had been created by 12 July. The killings of Jews by mobile extermination squads began almost immediately. Mass killings took place in July and November. The survivors were used as slave labor. After each killing, significant looting by the Nazis occurred. A ''Judenrat'' was established to pay a large ransom; after paying out 2 million roubles of gold, its members were then executed. In March 1942, ghettos in the surrounding areas were merged into the Słonim ghetto.
On 29 June 1942, the ghetto revolted, families went into hiding underground, and armed struggle broke out. Five Germans were killed; they retaliated by killing between 8,000 and 55,000 Jews (based on figures by Nazis). By August the ghetto was nearly empty, and the last few hundred inhabitants were killed. Some Jews had escaped to a nearby Catholic Church, which was revealed by the collaborationist local government. The Nazis raided the church and killed the priest and two nuns, all who would later be beatified. Słonim was recaptured by the Soviets in 1944, and would eventually become part of Belarus. According to the ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', some 22,000 people died in the Słonim ghetto.
==Background== thumb|The Grand Synagogue of Slonim in 1930 After the establishment of the Second Polish Republic at the end of the First World War, and according to Polish census of 1921, there were 6,917 Jews in the city. According to the Polish census of 1931, the Jewish population grew again to 8,605 or 64% of the rapidly expanding population of 16,251 with 4,899 Catholics.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Główny Urząd Statystyczny |title=''Ludność według płci i wyznania'' |title-link=:File:Woj.nowogrodzkie-Polska spis powszechny 1931.pdf |page=23 |quote=Table 11. Słonim city. Population: 16,251 (1931). Catholic: 4,899. Orthodox: 2,397. Judaism: 8,605. Other: 276.}}</ref> There were 10 new Jewish schools in Słonim, including the Yiddish high school.<ref name="sztetl-1">{{cite web |url=http://www.sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/slonim/5,historia/?action=view |publisher=Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN |at=Virtual Shtetl |author=Aleksandra Bielawska |author2=Anna Susak |author3=Andriej Zamojski |author4=Anna Mirkowska |author5=Martyna Sypniewska |title=Jewish history of Słonim |year=2011}}[http://www.sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/slonim/5,historia/?action=view&page=3 Part III: 1921–1939.]</ref>
During the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 Słonim was taken over by the Red Army.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> Słonim turned into a destination for Polish-Jewish refugees escaping from the German-controlled territory of western Poland. Living conditions became very difficult. While the number of refugees in the fall of 1939 was around 2,000 by local count, their total had grown to 15,216 just one year later. The oppressive conditions of the Soviet system made the majority of newcomers unable to find work.<ref name="sztetl-2">{{cite web |url=http://www.sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/slonim/5,historia/?action=view&page=4 |publisher=Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN |author=Aleksandra Bielawska |author2=Anna Susak |author3=Andriej Zamojski |author4=Anna Mirkowska |author5=Martyna Sypniewska |title=Jewish history of Słonim (Part 4) |at=Virtual Shtetl |date=8 November 2010}}</ref> Others collaborated; chiefly the young men with nothing to lose.<ref name="jz193">Joshua D. Zimmerman (2015), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=w4dsCQAAQBAJ&q=Kresy+collaborator The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939–1945.]'' Cambridge University Press via Google Books, p. 260.</ref>
==Slonim ghetto formation== {{see also|The Holocaust in Poland|Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland}} The Germans rolled into the city on 24–26 June 1941 amid bombing and shelling.<ref name="dean"/> Anti-Jewish measures were imposed right away to ensure isolation. Hundreds of men were rounded up and brought into the municipal stadium where they were beaten and killed during interrogations which lasted for one week.<ref name="dean"/> Soon thereafter, ''Gebietskommissar'' Gerhard Erren,<ref>{{cite web |date=1941–1943 |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/Holocaust-in-the-east.html |title=Gerhard Erren: report on the actions of Einsatzkommando 8 |website=Holocaust Research Project}}</ref> the German commandant of Słonim,<ref name="T&B">{{cite book |title=The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union |author1=Robert W. Thurston |author2=Bernd Bonwetsch |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-252-02600-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/peopleswarrespon00robe/page/36 36]–37, 45–46 |url=https://archive.org/details/peopleswarrespon00robe |url-access=registration |quote=Slonim Erren.}}</ref> appointed in August,<ref name="WWB"/> ordered the creation of the ''Judenrat'' with eleven members, to carry out his orders.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> ''Judenrat'' president, Wolf Berman, an 80-year-old former bank director,<ref name="ShC"/> was forced to collect a ransom of 2 million roubles in gold.<ref name="count"/> The lump-sum payment went into private hands and the entire Jewish council was executed. Other prominent members of the community feared to join the ''Judenrat'' lest they share their fate.<ref name="ShC"/> The new council was made responsible for organizing and supplying forced labour. The Jewish Ghetto Police was also created, with 30 uniformed men. As of 12 July 1941 Słonim Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David on their outer garments. All Jews living around the city centre were evicted,<ref name="sztetl-2"/> and moved across the bridge over the Szczara River to a brand new ghetto in the Na Wyspie (literally On Island) neighbourhood, surrounded by barbed wire and guards at both gates.<ref>Eilat Gordin Levitan, [http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/slonim/slo_pix/new_scenes/082608_84_b.gif Słonim Ghetto map] with legend in Polish and Yiddish. Source: Nachum Alpert, {{ISBN|0-89604-137-9}}.</ref> Meanwhile, the second group of ''Judenrat'' members were all, like their predecessors, executed on 14 November 1941.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> After each shooting, self-enrichment among the perpetrators began immediately. On one occasion, ''Oberleutnant'' Glück sent a full boxcar with Jewish valuables to his hometown of Rosenheim under armed escort, particularly fur coats and articles made from precious metals.<ref name="WWB">{{cite book |title=Marching into Darkness |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2014 |pages=153–154, 162 |author=Waitman Wade Beorn |author-link=Waitman Wade Beorn |isbn=978-0-674-72660-4}}</ref> A Belarusian auxiliary policeman, Stanislaw Chrzanowski (died 2017 in England), is alleged to have been involved with the Slonim ghetto and to have been a postwar spy for MI6<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/7z6huifsyj/the-nazi-in-the-family-stanislaw-stan-chrzanowski The Nazi in the family BBC March 2021]</ref>
===Nazi atrocities=== [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Alber-096-34, Arthur Nebe.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Arthur Nebe, head of the SS ''Einsatzgruppe B''<ref>{{cite book |last=Headland |first=Ronald |year=1992 |title=Messages of Murder: A Study of the Reports of the Security Police and the Security Service |publisher=Associated University Presses |isbn=0-8386-3418-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mue8a5Rwyi0C&q=Nebe |page=74}}</ref> ]] {{see also|Final Solution|Nazi crimes against the Polish nation}}
The first large-scale extermination of Jews in Słonim took place on 17 July 1941, as soon as the EG-B's ''Einsatzkommando 8'' under the command of Otto Badfisch arrived in the town along with the Order Police battalion stationing in Minsk.<ref name="PL198"/> Just prior to the massacre, burial pits were prepared on the outskirts of the village Pietrolewicze nearby.<ref name="karta">{{cite web |title=Słonim – Karta Dziedzictwa Kulturowego |trans-title=Slonim – A Cultural Heritage |editor=Emil Majuk |publisher=Shtetl Routes. Jewish Heritage Places and Objects in the Cross-border Tourism (Obiekty żydowskiego dziedzictwa kulturowego w turystyce transgranicznej) |year=2013 |quote=Home of Słonimer Awraam (1802–1884), the founder of Slonim Hasidic Dynasty. |url=http://shtetlroutes.eu/pl/slonim-karta-dziedzictwa-kulturowego/}}</ref> Some 2,000 Jews were rounded up in the square, and 1,075 of them,<ref name="PL198"/> or 1,200 by Polish estimates, were loaded into lorries, never to return.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> The role of the collaborationist Belarusian Auxiliary Police (established on 7 July 1941) was crucial in the totality of procedures, as only they – wrote Martin Dean – knew the identity of the Jews.<ref name="dean">{{cite book |title=Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941–44 |author=Martin Dean |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2003 |chapter=The Ghetto 'Liquidations' |pages=18, 22, 78, 93 |isbn=1-4039-6371-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdzTU1Uj3zcC&q=Second+Wave+clearance |via=Goggle Books}}</ref><ref>Einsatzgruppe B (19–24 July 1941), [http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/situationreport27.html Operational Situation Report No. 27.] Addressed to the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, Berlin: ''"It has been repeatedly observed that Jews escape into the forests now and try to hide there. The employed White Russians have shown little activity so far. It has been explained already to Dr. Tschora what is expected from their support, particularly concerning the cooperation in the apprehension of Communists, officials, commissars, intellectuals, Jews, etc."'' – OSR 27. Holocaust Research Project.org 2007.</ref> After that, the count of the Jewish population was ordered, and the selection of craftsmen and qualified labourers took place. The workers were issued ''Kennkarte'' and moved; in October 1941 a special ghetto zone was set up for them at the 'Na Wyspie' neighbourhood. Some hoped that over the long run the knowledge of German coupled with professional skills would save them from imminent death.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> More Jews were brought in from neighbouring settlements. In March 1942 the makeshift ghettos in Iwacewicze,<ref name="sztetl.org-3">{{cite web |url=http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/iwacewicze/13,places-of-martyrology/33024,getto-w-iwacewiczach/ |title=Getto w Iwacewiczach |publisher=Museum of the History of Polish Jews |work=Virtual Shtetl |author=Ilya A. Altman (translation from the Russian) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045108/http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/iwacewicze/13,places-of-martyrology/33024,getto-w-iwacewiczach/ |archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> Dereczyn, Gołynka, Byteń, and Kosów in the vicinity were liquidated. All inmates were marched on foot to the Słonim ghetto to perish there.<ref name="karta"/>
The second mass murder of Słonim Jews by Einsatzgruppe B took place five months later,<ref name="sztetl-2"/> on 14 November 1941.<ref name="dean"/> In the so-called second sweep, the ghetto was cordoned off and 9,000 people were taken by lorries to the village of Czepielów, {{convert|7|km}} distance, where they were shot in the pits by rifle fire.<ref name="PL198"/> The ghettoised Jews were fully aware of the progress of the massacre because a few prisoners escaped back.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> During the course of the operation, the Belarusian ''Schutzmannschaft-Einzeldienst'' (formed by Max von Schenckendorff) forced the Jews out of their homes and convoyed them to Czepielów under armed escort. They also took part in the shooting by the SS, aided by the Latvian and Lithuanian auxiliaries.<ref name="dean"/> After the mass killings, they actively searched for the Jews in hiding.<ref name="dean"/> By 13 November 1941 only 7,000 skilled workers remained alive inside the ghetto, all bound into the forced labour process.<ref name="PL198"/> The testimonies, written by the Jewish-Polish survivors, are currently held at the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.<ref name="sztetl-2"/>
===The revolt=== thumb|upright=1.2|The burning Słonim Ghetto across the Szczara River during the Jewish revolt which erupted in the course of the final ghetto extermination action, 29 June 1942
On the morning of 29 June 1942 the Jews staged a revolt to defend themselves from further deportations.<ref name="ShC"/> All families descended into the secret bunkers. Tunnels were also dug leading outside.<ref name="ShC">{{cite book |title=The Jews of Bielorussia During World War II |author=Shalom Cholawski |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1998 |isbn=90-5702-193-5 |pages=141–142, 146, 162, 253 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M7gXOaobQR8C&q=Slonim |quote=In the weeks that followed [the ghetto liquidation action], there were also further massacres in the area of Slonim with thousands of fatalities.<sup>(p. 347)</sup>}}</ref> Members of the underground led by David Epshtein shot at the arriving troops using stockpiled firearms refurbished at the ''Beutelager''.<ref name="PL198"/> At least five Germans were killed and many others wounded. The Nazis set fire to the ghetto in retaliation. The Jewish hospital with patients inside was blown up by the SS. The extermination actions leading to subsequent ghetto complete eradication continued between 29 June and 15 July 1942. For two weeks, the fugitives were hunted down and trucked from Słonim to the killing fields near the village of Pietrolewicze by the SS, Orpo,<ref name="WWB"/> and Belarusian police.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> The revolt was crushed with the help of arriving reinforcements which included Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian ''Schutzmannschaft''.<ref name="PL198"/> Head of the Jewish ''Arbeitsamt'', Gerszon Kvint, was shot point blank by Rittmaier.<ref name="ShC"/> Between 8,000 (Kube) and up to 13,000 people were murdered in their homes or out in the streets and in the killing fields.<ref name="TJC">{{cite magazine |title=June 29: The Slonim Massacres |magazine=Jewish Currents |url=http://jewishcurrents.org/june-29-the-slonim-massacres-2076 |quote=Following some acts of armed resistance by Jewish partisans in the ghetto of Slonim, the Nazis set the ghetto on fire on this date in 1942 and spent the next two weeks laboriously murdering between seven and ten thousand Jews. |year=2016 |author=Sid Resnick Historical Archive |access-date=2016-06-11 |archive-date=2013-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225000313/http://jewishcurrents.org/june-29-the-slonim-massacres-2076}}</ref> Saved by the Polish nuns in a Catholic convent 62 miles from Słonim, Oswald Rufeisen remembered: "I did not see Poles there murdering Jews, although I did see Poles being murdered."<ref name="TP222">{{cite book |title=Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947 |author=Tadeusz Piotrowski |publisher=McFarland |year=1997 |isbn=0-7864-2913-5 |pages=106, 222, 316 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBbnrEMswbUC&q=Oswald+Rufeisen |quote=To escape Nazi persecution, Oswald Rufeisen was hidden in a convent of the Sisters of the Resurrection for over a year.}}</ref> The size of the Słonim Ghetto was greatly reduced after that. One month later, on 31 July 1942, ''Generalkommissar'' for ''Weissruthenien'' Wilhelm Kube, delivered a report to Hinrich Lohse summarising the ghetto liquidation action and subsequent "Jew-hunts". According to him, in the preceding ten weeks some 55,000 Jews were exterminated in the region.<ref name="sztetl-2"/><ref name="PL198">{{cite book |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |author=Peter Longerich |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-280436-5 |pages=198, 238, 347 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYqYIn73SgC&q=Slonim}}</ref>
The fourth and final ghetto extermination action took place on 20 August 1942,<ref name="karta"/><ref>Jewish Calendar: [http://www.hebcal.com/hebcal/?year=1942&v=1&month=x&yt=G&nh=on&nx=on&i=off&vis=0&D=on&d=on&c=off&geo=zip#cal-1942-08 20 August 1942.] Diaspora; Date Converter.</ref> during which the last 700 men and 100 women performing various tasks (such as clean-up as well as mass burials) were rounded up and murdered. The Słonim Ghetto was no more.<ref>{{cite book |title=Histoire Russe, Volume 9 |author=University Center for International Studies |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |year=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=csFoAAAAMAAJ&q=134%2C298%2Bpersons |quote=Up to 15 December 1942, Einsatzgruppe B reported executing a total of 134,298 persons (pp. 68–69).<sup>[29]</sup>}}</ref> Many Jews had fled into the woods;<ref name="PL198"/> 30 people formed an autonomous Jewish fighting group called Schtorrs 51 (Shchors) in the vicinity of Kosovo,<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Partisan Units: Slonim, Schtorrs 51 |publisher=Organization of Partisans Underground Fighters |location=Tel Aviv, Israel |author=Baruch Shub |url=http://eng.thepartisan.org/home/doc.aspx?mCatID=68459 |via=Internet Archive |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613182257/http://eng.thepartisan.org/home/doc.aspx?mCatID=68459 |archive-date=June 13, 2016}}</ref> helped by Pavel Proniagin in defiance of Soviet orders.<ref name="PL198"/> Others had remained in hiding on the Aryan side.<ref name="sztetl-2"/> According to ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', 22,000 Jews in and around Słonim had been murdered.<ref name="HE63">{{cite book |title=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |editor=Walter Laqueur |editor2=Judith Tydor Baumel |year=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven & London |isbn=0-300-08432-3 |at=63–64 (104–105}}</ref>
==Aftermath== Four months after the last ghetto massacre, during the night of 18 December 1942 Nazi forces raided the Catholic church and Monastery of the Sisters of the Poor, among other locations. The Germans had obtained information from the collaborationist Belarusian Central Council, regarding Christian Poles harbouring Jewish fugitives who had managed to escape.<ref name="KTK">{{cite web |author=Rev. Tadeusz Krahel |url=http://www.archibial.pl/czas/arch33/art/krahel.htm |title=Ksiądz Adam Sztark (19 XII 1942) |work=Czas Miłosierdzia Magazine Online |publisher=Białostocki Biuletyn Kościelny. Pismo Kurii Metropolitalnej |year=2016}}</ref> The Jewish families were hiding in attics, and in stables, in storerooms, and in greenhouses.<ref name="SN">{{cite web |url=http://niepokalanki.pl/old/index.php?op=teksty&pop=sangela%2F02-001 |publisher=Siostry Niepokalanki, opiekunki Sanktuarium N.M.P.Jazlowieckiej |title=Błogosławione s. Marta i s. Ewa |trans-title=Beatified Sisters Marta and Ewa |location=Szymanów |date=23 September 2007 |author=Sister M. Angela Zagrajek |access-date=13 June 2016 |archive-date=12 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812140932/http://niepokalanki.pl/old/index.php?op=teksty&pop=sangela%2F02-001}}</ref> The next morning, a priest, Adam Sztark, posthumously recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, and two nuns that helped him shelter Jewish children, were trucked to Pietrolewicze, on the outskirts of Słonim, and executed by the Germans.<ref name="KTK" /><ref name="SN" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4063476 |title=The Righteous Among The Nations: Sztark, Adam |website=db.yadvashem.org |access-date=2019-06-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/historie-pomocy/historia-ks-adama-sztarka |title=Historia ks. Adama Sztarka {{!}} Polscy Sprawiedliwi |website=sprawiedliwi.org.pl |access-date=2019-06-12}}</ref>
{{Annotated image |float=right |width=150 |height=222 |caption=Beatified Marta Wołowska of Słonim,<ref>{{cite web |website=Tygodnik Katolicki 'Niedziela' |title=Prawda poświadczona życiem |author=Marta Żyńska |year=2003 |url=http://www.niedziela.pl/artykul/18035/nd/Prawda-poswiadczona-zyciem}}</ref> murdered for saving Jews |image=Marta Wołowska.JPG |annotations= |image-top=-150 |image-left=-180 |image-width=500}}
Three of the Christian victims were beatified by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999 in Warsaw, among the 108 Martyrs of World War II.<ref name="COL">{{cite web |title=108 Polish Martyrs |author=Catholic Online |work=Searchable database of information on Catholic saints |publisher=COL |location=Bakersfield, Ca. USA |url=http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=6999}}</ref><ref name="VAL">{{cite web |title=Catholic Martyrs of the Holocaust |author=Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J. |url=http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/vlapomar/hiatt/martyrs.htm |publisher=College of the Holy Cross |at=With extended Bibliography |year=2008}}</ref> Two of the beatified were Polish nuns from Słonim, executed at Górki Pantalowickie hill on 19 December 1942: {{ill|Bogumiła Noiszewska|pl|Bogumiła Noiszewska}},<ref name="JLx"/> and Maria Marta Kazimiera Wołowska.<ref name="JLx">{{cite web |title=Bravery behind beatification: Kazimiera Wolowska and Bogumila Noiszewska |publisher=World news. The Guardian |date=14 June 1999 |author=Jonathan Luxmoore |location=Warsaw |work=Pope blesses Poles martyred by the Nazis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/14/catholicism.religion}}</ref><ref name="Lapomarda">{{cite web |title=Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother Superior Kazimiera Wolowska (Sister Maria Marta) and Bogumila Noiszewska (Sister Maria Ewa) |work=152 Jesuit Victims of the Nazis |author=Vincent A. Lapomarda |publisher=College of the Holy Cross |date=7 February 2008 |quote=''The Jesuits and the Third Reich'', Inside the Vatican, May 2000. |url=http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/vlapomar/hiatt/jesuits.htm}}</ref> They had helped and sheltered Jews. Also beatified was the priest, Adam Sztark,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040304194244/http://www.holycross.edu/departments/history/vlapomar/hiatt/sztark.htm Adam Sztark: Biography and photographs.] College of the Holy Cross. Internet Archive.</ref> who was killed along with them.<ref name="Lapomarda"/> In 2001, Sztark became the first Polish Jesuit awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the state of Israel. He had delivered food to the ghetto, purchased with cash donations. He also issued false certificates, personally sheltered Jewish refugees, and called upon all his parishioners to help to save the ghetto residents.<ref name="catholicforum">Terry Jones, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080216014743/http://catholicforum.com/saints/martyr08.htm Listing of the names of all 108 martyrs] beatified on 13 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II at Warsaw, Poland; CatholicForum.com website. Internet Archive.</ref><ref name="info.kalisz-Sztark">Rafał Harlaf, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070218125722/http://www.info.kalisz.pl/Biograf/Sztark.htm Oświadczenie złożone w 1946 r. dla Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego] (Deposition from 1946 for the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw). Info.Kalisz.pl via Internet Archive.</ref>
The Red Army reached Słonim in mid-July 1944 during Operation Bagration. After World War II ended, Poland's borders were redrawn, according to the demands made by Josef Stalin during Tehran Conference confirmed (as not negotiable) at the Yalta Conference of 1945. Słonim (Cyrillic: Сло́ним) was then incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR of the Soviet Union. The Polish population was expelled and forcibly resettled within the new borders of Poland before the end of 1946. The Jewish community was never restored. Since 1991, Slonim has been one of the district centres of the Grodno Region in sovereign Belarus.<ref name="Fertacz">Sylwester Fertacz (2005), [https://web.archive.org/web/20090425133017/http://www.alfa.com.pl/slask/200506/s19.html "Krojenie mapy Polski: Bolesna granica" (Carving of Poland's map).] Magazyn Społeczno-Kulturalny ''Śląsk.'' Retrieved from the Internet Archive on 5 June 2016.</ref><ref name="BP285">{{cite book |title=Warlords: An Extraordinary Re-Creation of World War II |author=Simon Berthon |author2=Joanna Potts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q45EBArmpRYC&q=Livadia+Palace%2C+Poland&pg=PA285 |page=285 |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-306-81650-5}}</ref>
== See also == * Łachwa Ghetto and Zdzięcioł Ghetto in occupied eastern Poland * The emergence of West Belarus
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== Further reading == * Aron Dereczynski, [https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_oi.php?MediaId=1930 Slonim, Poland.] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. * The Jewish Currents, [http://jewishcurrents.org/june-29-the-slonim-massacres-2076 June 29: The Slonim Massacres] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225000313/http://jewishcurrents.org/june-29-the-slonim-massacres-2076 |date=2013-12-25 }} * Eilat Gordin Levitan (Los Angeles), [http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/slonim/slonim.html Jews of the Polish Słonim before the Holocaust] with over a hundred family photographs. Database. * Leonid Smilovitsky (2000), [http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belarus/bel129.html#b26 Jews and Poles Among Belorussian Partisans.] ''Holocaust in Belorussia, 1941–1944.'' Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University. Translated by Judith Springer. * George Turlo, [http://exhibits.lib.usf.edu/items/show/1486 The Ghetto of Slonim. Transcription.] University of South Florida Libraries Oral History Program.
== External links == * {{JewishGen-LocalityPage|1949716|Slonim, Belarus}}
{{Holocaust Poland}} {{The Holocaust}} {{Jewish Belarusian history|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Slonim Ghetto}} Category:Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland Category:Jewish resistance during the Holocaust Category:Holocaust locations in Belarus Category:Ghetto uprisings Category:Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Belarus