Iwieniec Ghetto

Members of the Boys were imprisoned in the Iwieniec Ghetto.

The Iwieniec Ghetto was one of a network of ghettos set up by Nazi Germany in which Jews were forced to live in occupied Poland. As with other ghettos in Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, the Iwieniec Ghetto was established to contain the region’s Jews and isolate them from the rest of the population until the Nazi leadership could decide on an answer to the so-called “Jewish Question.”

The Boys and their families spent years living in dire conditions. The ghettos were not designed for the vast numbers of people forced to find space to live within them. As a result, multiple families shared cramped and insanitary accommodation.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

Ivyanyets or Ivenets[a] is a town 56km west of Minsk in Belarus. Prior to World War II it was part of Poland and known as Iwieniec.

Overview

In September 1939, Ivyanyets was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR. Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. From 26 June 1941 until 6 July 1944, Ivyanyets was occupied by Germany and administered as a part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland.

Layout

On November 10, 1941, the German authorities established a ghetto in Iwieniec. The ghetto was located on two very narrow streets.

In 1941, there were probably about 1,200 Jews residing in Ivyanyets district. As a result of the quick advance of the Germans, few Jews were able to evacuate with the Red Army.

The town is surrounded on three sides by the Naliboki Forest, which created favourable conditions for partisan activity during World War II. There were many Jewish partisans.

Liquidation

In early 1942, some Jews were selected and sent to other ghettos established in Poland, such as one in Navahrudak, as the Germans liquidated the remnants of the Ivyanyets Ghetto on 9 June 1942. That day, about 800 victims were shot in a pit in a forest outside of town. For more information on visiting Ivyanyets click here.