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Lithuanian:
Valkenynkai
A county seat in the Vilna district
History
of Olkieniki
The town of
Olkieniki is situated on the Marchenka River, near the estuary of
the Sulcha River, in a region of virgin forests. It is conjectured
that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the site was a
fortress. In the sixteenth century the Polish kings Sigismund Stary
and Sigismund August were guests at the palaces there. In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the town was owned by the
Sapieha and Granowsky families, both from the nobility. In the
period from the third partition of Poland in 1795 until World War I,
Olkieniki lay within the boundaries of the Russian Empire.
World War I
paralyzed the town's economic activity. In 1915, the retreating
Russian army shelled the local factories to ensure that they did not
fall into enemy hands. The Germans occupied Olkieniki for three
years, during which the residents suffered from a serious shortage
of basic foodstuffs and were recruited to forced labor.
After the
war Olkieniki was included within the boundaries of resurgent
Poland. Under Polish rule the devastated factories - two for
manufacturing carton, two sawmills, a grinding mill and a flour mill
- were reconstructed. In time two more flour mills were built, as
well as another steam-driven grinding mill, two turpentine
refineries, and two small factories for soda water. All these plants
together employed more than 200 people.
Shortly
after the start of World War II, on September 17, 1939, the Red Army
entered Olkieniki. However, ten days later the Vilna district, which
included Olkieniki, was annexed to Lithuania, headed by Smitona and
Markis. On June 15, 1940, Lithuania was given an ultimatum to
establish a government that would be acceptable to the Soviet Union.
On the same day the Red Army took over all of Lithuania, including
the Vilna district. Soviet rule lasted one year, until the Germans
launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. On the following
day, June 23, Olkieniki was captured by the Germans and was not
liberated by the Red Army until close to the end of the war.
The
Jews Until the End of World War I
The first
indications of a Jewish population in Olkieniki are gravestones from
the end of the sixteenth century (1590) in the old Jewish cemetery.
Probably the first Jews settled at the site in the second half of
that century with the encouragement of Alexander Jagello, king of
Poland and Lithuania. In 1503, he brought back to Lithuania the Jews
that he himself had expelled in 1495.
A large
group of veteran Jewish families in Olkieniki were originally from
Grodno, and this is apparently the explanation for the close family,
social, and business ties among many members of the community and
their brethren in Grodno. Despite the considerable distance between
the two places - 125 kilometers (about 78 miles) - the Olkieniki
Jews were for some years subordinate to the Grodno community in
administrative, rabbinical and religious matters.
In 1695,
the Lithuanian Communities' Council (Va'ad Medinat Lita) chose
Olkieniki as the site of its first assembly. The meeting lasted two
months, attesting indirectly to the size of the local Jewish
settlement and its economic prosperity. It was no small task to
accommodate and feed the parliament of Lithuanian Jewry, a very
large group of rabbis and officials, for such a long time. The
conference decided to annex the Jews of Olkieniki to the Kehillah of
Vilna, only 50 kilometers away.
The
municipal and religious ties inevitably brought about closer social
and economic relations; it was only natural that the struggles and
other severe crises that afflicted Vilna's Jews in the early part of
the eighteenth century would have repercussions in the Olkieniki
community.
In the
first half of the eighteenth century, Olkieniki's Jews did not yet
employ their own rabbi, although they apparently did have dayanim
(religious judges); the district rabbi in Vilna also served all
their needs.
The Jews of
Olkieniki had a special custom that originated in a regulation of
the Va'ad ha-Kehillah and was recorded in the old community pinkas
(record book), which was lost during the Holocaust: whenever a Jew
had a new garment made, he had to contribute a certain percentage of
the garment's worth to charity in order to underwrite the tuition
fees of children from poor families. The tailors were not permitted
to hand over the finished product until the client paid the clothes'
tax.
In 1765,
there were 535 Jewish poll-tax payers in Olkieniki and the
surrounding area. Thirty years later, when Olkieniki was annexed to
tsarist Russia, the town was known for its affluent Jewish
merchants.
The petty
merchants also prospered.
In 1798,
the Kehillah was able to raise sufficient funds to build a large
wooden synagogue. According to the elders of the community, the
squire Granowsky also contributed his share. The building was
dedicated in 1802. (The Great Synagogue of Olkieniki stood for
nearly 150 years until, on June 25, 1941, it was hit by German bombs
and went up in flames, together with the adjacent beit ha-midrash).
Population
|
Year
|
Number
of residents
|
Jews
|
Percentage
|
|
1847
|
1,153
|
-
|
-
|
|
1897
|
2,619
|
1,126
|
43.0
|
|
1925
|
2,241
|
798
|
35.6
|
In the
first half of the nineteenth century, Olkieniki's Jews made their
living from commerce, small businesses, and craftsmanship. There
were also some lumber and grain retailers. The Vilna-Warsaw railway
line, which was built between 1850 and 1860, passed 8 kilometers
west of Olkieniki. Residents of the town and peasants from the
vicinity were employed during the building, and many Jews also made
a living from the project as contractors, clerks, and workers. Other
important sources of livelihood for the Jews were the carton factory
and the town's three sawmills.
Around this
time three villages of Jewish agricultural workers, most of them
discharged soldiers, were established near Olkieniki: Dekshnia,
Laipon and Panshishki.
After the
middle of the century most of the trade in lumber and other forest
products was concentrated in the hands of Jewish merchants and
peddlers. Jewish entrepreneurs developed a series of forest-related
industries: turpentine, pine oil, pitch, charcoal and even medicines
made from forest herbs. Jewish merchants purchased the plants from
peasants, hunters, and forest guards, cleaned and dried them, and
packed them in sacks that were shipped to pharmaceutical industries
in Russia and beyond. Forest fruits, wild berries, and mushrooms
were also much in demand and were sold by Jews. Olkieniki also
became known as a center for rest-cures, thanks to its clear, dry
air. Some residents boosted their income modestly by renting rooms
to vacationers.
Until the
St. Petersburg-Vilna-Warsaw railway line was built, horse-drawn
carts or sleds were the only means of transportation available to
the town's inhabitants, and most of the wagoners were Jews. The
latter remained in business even after the railway began to operate,
since passengers and goods had to be transported back and forth from
the train station, which was some 7 or 8 kilometers outside the
town. With the railway line came general economic prosperity; the
local craftsmen flourished and the population grew. In 1906, a local
branch of the Jewish Folksbank was established at the initiative of
Chaim Cohen, who served also as a town-elder.
The Great
Synagogue of Olkieniki, which, as we have already noted, was
completed in 1802, was famed for its external beauty and its unique
interior. It was a source of pride to the Kehillah, and detailed
descriptions of the building were handed down from generation to
generation. Among the ritual articles in the synagogue was a
parokhet (curtain covering the Holy Ark) on which was embroidered,
in gold letters, the name of Napoleon, who had visited the synagogue
and expressed his admiration.
According
to local tradition, well-known rabbis served in Olkieniki. However,
from this period we know only the names of Rabbi Shmuel Bar Chaim
Reiss, from the second half of the eighteenth century, and Rabbi
Ya'akov Ben-Shmaryahu. Besides being very learned in the Torah, both
were noted for their devotion to the community and were greatly
esteemed. Rabbi Ben-Shmaryahu later settled in the Holy Land. For a
long time the Kehillah was unable to find a rabbi of equal stature
to these two rabbis, and, as a result, the rabbinate remained
unoccupied for many years, until after World War I (see below).
The
community's institutions were many and varied. A number of
frameworks for Torah study were organized in the second half of the
nineteenth century. In 1870, the Hevrat Poalim association was
established in affiliation with the shtiebel (Hassidic house of
worship). This organization served the children of the poor, who
were taught by their rabbi chapters from Haijei Adam (Man's Life)
and the Kitzur Shulhan Arukh (abridged Jewish codex). In the early
twentieth century the association was headed by R.P. Ginzburg, who
was probably a Lubavicher Hassid. Hevrat Poalim still existed in
Olkieniki after the start of World War II. Next to be founded were
Hevrat Shas (seventy members); the condition for membership was the
ability to read a page from the Talmud and Ein Ya'akov. There was
also a small yeshivah which was a branch of the Beit Yosef yeshivah
in Siemiatycze. The children of the community studied in the
traditional heder. The first Hebrew language elementary school,
Hatehiyah, was founded in 1912. There were a number of charity and
welfare organizations, including Bikur Holim and Linat Zedek.
Hakhnasat Kallah was a fund for dowries for poor brides, and
Hakhnasat Orkhim - for indigent Jewish wayfarers.Olkieniki's Jews
were very pious. There were a striking number of Hassidim, followers
of various rabbinic dynasties. However, this did not screen out all
influence of the Haskalah (Enlightenment). Some members of the
community subscribed to Ha-Shahar, Perez Smolenskin's monthly, and
one local resident even published articles in the journal.
In 1904 an
amateur theatrical group was formed in the town, and that same year
some local maskilim (adherents of the Haskalah movement) established
a library that contained books in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. The
young generation made great use of it and read avidly. During World
War I the books were packed in boxes and stored in the homes of
local Jews, and it was only in 1918 that the youngsters of Olkieniki,
with the assistance of YEKOPO (a social-welfare organization that,
after World War I, extended substantial assistance to the
rehabilitation of community life), were able to reopen the library.
In 1927, it contained 2,400 books.
Zionist
activity in the town seems to have begun shortly after the founding
of the World Zionist Organization. Already in 1900, an Olkieniki
resident, Yosef Dworzin, purchased shares in the Jewish Colonial
Bank (Trust). In 1911, a veteran family from Olkieniki settled in
Palestine, in Petah Tikvah.
In the late
nineteenth century, many of the town's Jews emigrated to the United
States, a trend that was intensified in the early years of the
twentieth century, particularly among army-age youth and young
families.
In
1904-1905, the years of the Russo-Japanese War, riots broke out in
the Russian Empire, accompanied by anti-Jewish pogroms. In response
the community's youngsters set up a self-defense organization. They
would train on the Sabbath, using arms they had obtained and
under the
direction of the army veterans among them.
With the
outbreak of World War I, many young people were conscripted into the
Russian army and sent to the front. Some were killed in combat or
were captured by the Germans and incarcerated in prisoner-of-war
camps for a few years before being released. The Russians also
mobilized the country's horses, a measure that affected many Jews.
In the course of their retreat, the Russian forces shelled most of
the local factories (the carton factory and the sawmill, flour mill
and grinding mill), hurling the town into poverty and want. In 1915,
Olkieniki was captured by the Germans, who, in their three years of
rule, confiscated the agricultural produce that was brought to the
town by peasants, causing shortages of basic foodstuffs. The males
who remained in the town were recruited to forced labor, such as
cutting down trees, paving a new road, and repairing old roads. The
Germans shut down the Hebrew school, and the Jewish children were
forced to study in a school established by the occupiers.
Yet with
the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917,
exaltation and hope displaced the feelings of gloom. Despite the
harsh situation and debilitating labor, most of the young people
became active Zionists. Before the year was out a branch of Ze'irei
Zion was founded in Olkieniki, which was affiliated with the centers
in Vilna and Warsaw. Young people and adults from all walks of life
joined the organization, including boys from the beit ha-midrash,
children of merchants, shopkeepers, craftsmen and workers.
Between
the World Wars
Public
Life, Zionist Activity, Education and Culture. Following the war
Olkieniki was included within the boundaries of Poland. In 1921,
countrywide elections were held for the Jewish Communities'
Councils. The event was a milestone in Olkieniki, reflecting the
changes that had occurred in the local Jewish society. The hotly
contested struggle between the old generation and the youngsters,
who were strongly influenced by the Ze'irei Zion movement, over the
democratization of the elections, ended with the victory of the
young people. The adults yielded to their demands, and the agreement
that was reached in this first election became the foundation for
the future elections to the Community Council. There were several
more elections in Olkieniki before the outbreak of World War II.
In 1920, a
first group of halutzim from Olkieniki went on aliyah. A few even
joined Kibbutz Ein Harod. A second group of youngsters followed in
1924. The majority of the town's young people organized in
pioneer-Zionist youth movements, while the minority joined the
Communist Party, which operated as an underground organization.
The first
of the Zionist movements were He-Halutz (established in Olkieniki in
1921) and He-Halutz ha-Za'ir; a branch of Betar was set up in 1928.
Forty-six eligible voters from Olkieniki took part in the elections
to the Seventeenth Zionist Congress in 1932.
Following
the war the Hebrew school was reopened with the help of YEKOPO.
However, the teaching staff and the administration were divided over
the character of the school and the curriculum. The observant wanted
religious education and demanded that the curriculum reflect that
stream. Initially, however, the secular group was victorious, and
for a time the Hebrew school was affiliated with the Tarbut network.
Afterward, though, the Tarbut school was closed and replaced by the
Horev school of the religious Mizrachi movement. In 1930, that
school had sixty pupils in five classes. Some of the community's
boys and most of the girls attended a Polish-state elementary
school. Many went to Vilna to pursue their studies, and the number
of high-school graduates increased steadily. A small yeshivah,
founded in the second half of the nineteenth century, also continued
to operate, with about twenty students. The community also sponsored
a Jewish kindergarten and provided day care for small children.
Local Jews
showed a strong interest in the Jewish press. Dozens of papers,
published in Warsaw and Vilna, were in great demand in Olkieniki.
Between the
two world wars the rabbinate began to function again with the
appointment of Rabbi Waldtsein to the post. But he would be the last
of the community's rabbis, as he perished in the Holocaust with the
rest of his congregation. Rabbi Waldtsein's Torah innovations were
published in the monthly Ha-Be'er.
The Jews in
the Economy and Society. The end of the war did not alleviate the
economic hardships of Olkieniki's Jews. The newly created Polish
government, far from spurring economic activity, taxed businesses
heavily. Jews who could afford it emigrated overseas. Those who
remained in the town turned for assistance to Jewish institutions
and to relatives in America. The Folksbank which had been closed
during the war, reopened with the aid of YEKOPO, and several young
local entrepreneurs were co-opted to the new management. In 1923,
the Gemilut Hessed charitable fund was reestablished, also with the
support of YEKOPO. Nearly 300 artisans and peddlers received
interest-free loans from the fund in order to rehabilitate their
businesses and workshops. The fund's treasurer was Gad Zandman, an
affluent merchant and public activist, the scion of a veteran
established family, who devotedly helped many of the community's
poor. Other relief and welfare associations, such as those offering
medical care for the needy and hospices for the indigent, also
renewed their activity. Gradually the Jews of Olkieniki got their
businesses and other affairs back to the pre-war level.
Factories
that had been destroyed by the Russians, most of them Jewish-owned,
were also rebuilt, and, by the late 1920s, the industries in the
town, new and old, employed some 200 workers. Commerce was an
important source of livelihood. The most affluent Jewish merchants
were six exporters of grains and lumber, four suppliers of grain and
meat to the army, and four flour importers. In addition, Jews owned
fifteen fabrics' shops, eight department stores, grocery stores,
shops for household goods and notions, and a store that sold
perfumes and medicinal herbs. There were forty-one Jewish petty
merchants and peddlers who plied their wares in the surrounding
villages. Jews owned sixteen bakeries, and, in addition to bakers,
there were many other Jewish artisans and craftsmen: eighteen
blacksmiths, three wheel-manufacturers, five carpenters, six
woodcutters, a bookbinder, a tinsmith, a stone-engraver, a potter,
five tailors and twenty-five seamstresses, two milliners, twenty
shoemakers and three shoe stitchers, three glaziers, four owners of
carriages and eight wagoners, four butchers, two hairdressers, a
barber, and a sock-knitter. The first bus made its appearance in
1928, on the Olkieniki-Vilna line. There were also Jewish
professionals: one physician, three pharmacists, ten clerks, and
four teachers, probably in the Jewish school. Serving the
community's religious needs were a rabbi, a cantor, two ritual
slaughterers, two beadles, and five klezmerim (folk musicians).
Relations
between the Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors were generally
correct. Friendly relations developed with some of the peasants in
the nearby villages, particularly the Byelorussians.
World
War II
The German
invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, led to the mobilization of
Jewish youngsters from Olkieniki. Some died in combat; others were
captured by the Nazis. The Polish garrison that had been stationed
at Olkieniki was also dispatched to the front. The Red Army, which
entered the town in September 1939, left after just ten days in
favor of the independent Lithuanian state, which governed the Vilna
district until the end of June 1940 (see above). The entire area was
later annexed to the Soviet Union. In this period Olkieniki was a
haven for large numbers of Jewish refugees who fled from the
Nazi-occupied areas of Poland.
The Soviets
installed the Communist regime and introduced far-reaching changes
in the town. One of their first measures was to nationalize shops
and commercial enterprises valued at more than 1,500 rubles. Some of
the shopowners who were affected were appointed by the authorities
as officials and managers in factories and commercial enterprises;
others were expelled to the Soviet Union, usually to Siberia or
Kazakhstan. Among the latter was Gad Zandman. He had hidden some of
his merchandise, including expensive fabrics, behind a double wall
in his nationalized shop; someone informed on him, and he was
sentenced to ten years in prison and expelled.
The Soviet
authorities established artisans' cooperatives according to
professions. They also reorganized the educational system to suit
their regime. At first they set up a Yiddish-language school for the
Jewish children, and local teachers were integrated into the new
system. However, within three months that school was closed and
replaced by a new one in which the languages of instruction were
Russian and Byelorussian. The teachers had to attend courses to
learn the new languages.
On June 22,
1941, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa. Vilna and its
environs were bombed, and on June 23 the Wehrmacht's tanks already
entered Olkieniki. The local Wehrmacht commander appointed an
antisemitic Lithuanian who collaborated with the Nazis as the town's
governor. Immediately after his appointment the Jews were ordered to
wear the yellow patch on their outer clothing and were forbidden to
use the sidewalks. A few days later came arrests of young Jews, all
of them public activists from the intelligentsia. They were accused
of belonging to a Communist organization and were executed.
On June 25,
a German bomber squadron overflew Olkieniki on its way to the east.
One of the planes dropped a bomb on the town, apparently by
accident, igniting a fire. The strong wind that was blowing at the
time fanned the flames, and, within minutes, the Jewish quarter was
a blazing inferno. Most of the houses, together with the synagogue
and the beit ha-midrash, were completely leveled. A few Jews managed
to save some of their belongings, but most lost everything. Those
made destitute by the fire sought shelter in the few houses that
were still standing, but not many found accommodations in Olkieniki.
The others moved in with relatives or friends in the surrounding
villages.
Shortly
after the start of the occupation, the town's Jews were ordered to
choose representatives who would be responsible for the community to
the Lithuanian governor. The latter enthusiastically implemented
every new antisemitic decree that the Nazis instituted. One such
measure was mandatory mobilization for forced labor. The Jews of
Olkieniki and the vicinity were put to work digging peat, cutting
down trees, and repairing roads. They were subjected to constant
abuse and humiliation by their superiors, the Lithuanian police, and
German gendarmes.
Food became
increasingly scarce, and the Jews had no choice but to turn over
their remaining possessions to peasants in return for food, usually
potatoes. A few Jews who under the Soviets had been officials or
foremen hid in and around the town, but concern for their families
prevented them from fleeing to the forests.
On
September 20, 1941, the German district-governor of Vilna, Wolf,
ordered all the Jewish men in Olkieniki to assemble in the square in
front of the fire station. The threat of death for disobeying was
sufficient for everyone to turn up at the appointed time. The old
and the sick were taken in carts to the town of Eishishki, and the
others were forced to march there under strict guard, tortured and
humiliated every step of the way. Nevertheless, a few youngsters
managed to escape and were joined by some young families. On the
following day, September 21, the women and children were
concentrated in the same square. Again the sick and the elderly were
loaded into carts, while the others retraced on foot the route taken
by the men the day before.
At
Eishishki, the Jews of Olkieniki were incarcerated in stables
together with Jews from nearby towns who had been brought there
earlier. When the stables were filled, some of the Jews were put
into the beit ha-midrash. At night Lithuanian guards came in,
ostensibly to classify the Jews but in fact to take their shoes,
boots and other clothing that caught their eye; in some cases they
forced people to strip so that they could steal from them. Two Jews
who refused to remove their boots were beaten by policemen.
Reinforcements were also called in, and the two were pummeled into
unconsciousness. Then their boots were taken from them.
For sixty
hours the Jews were held in the barns and the study house, deprived
of water and food, and not even permitted to go out to relieve
themselves. Again, though, despite the heavy guard, two youngsters
from Olkieniki escaped into the forest. Afterward all the
incarcerees - Jews from Olkieniki, Eishishki, Dekshnia, Laipon and
the vicinity - were taken to the horse market, where they were
surrounded by armed policemen and SS men and forced to hand over all
their valuables - money, jewelry, and so forth.
On
September 24, the Nazis circulated a rumor that they needed strong
young men to dig holes for a fence to be erected around the area in
which the Olkieniki Jews would be housed. A group of youngsters
volunteered, unaware that they were being taken to dig their own
graves. The Nazis took the group to the killing site, stood the
young Jews on the edge of the pits they had dug, shot them, and
dumped their bodies in the holes. When the others heard what had
happened, they refused to go. To overcome their resistance, the
Nazis showed them a letter supposedly written by a member of the
first group of volunteers to his wife, urging her to join him in his
new place in the ghetto. The forgery was skillfully done, but the
majority of the surviving Jews were not duped; only a few wavered
between the dread of death and desperate hope. The Nazis now
threatened that if the Jews did not obey they would be shot on the
spot. To expedite the executions, the Germans brought in
reinforcements of Lithuanian police and German gendarmes, and all
the Jewish males were taken to the area of the pits and murdered
there. Only the women, small children, the elderly and the sick -
those who were physically unable to reach the killing site - now
remained in the horse market. According to the testimony of Avraham
Taihan, who hid in a nearby barn and was an eyewitness to the
events, all the remaining Jews were also taken in the dead of night,
and a peasant told him that every one of them - the old, the women,
and the children - were shot on the edge of the pits.
Of
approximately 800 Jews who had lived in Olkieniki when the war broke
out, only thirty-six survived: three who were exiled to Siberia,
three survivors of Nazi concentration camps, seventeen who hid in
the forests and other places, five partisans, and eight youngsters
who served in the Red Army.
Today there
are no Jews in Olkieniki.
Sources
and Bibliography
Archives
Yad Vashem
Archives, 0-3/2745.
Lohamei ha-Getta'ot
Archives, 90/5030, 7092.
Books
Shlomo
Farber (ed.), Olkieniki in Flames, a Memorial Book (Hebrew), Tel
Aviv, 1962. |
