Kudirkos Naumiestis () is in the

Šakiai district municipality Šakiai District Municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. Under Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congr ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. It is located south-west of Šakiai.

History

The settlement was first mentioned in 1561 as a village called ''Duoliebaičiai.'' In 1639 the town was renamed ''Vladislavovas'' ( pl, Władysławów) by

Cecilia Renata of Austria Cecilia Renata of Austria (german: Cäcilia Renata, pl, Cecylia Renata; 16 July 1611 – 24 March 1644) was Queen of Poland as the wife of King Władysław IV Vasa. Selection and coronation Cecilia Renata was a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Fe ...

after her husband

Władysław IV Vasa Władysław IV Vasa; lt, Vladislovas Vaza; sv, Vladislav IV av Polen; rus, Владислав IV Ваза, r=Vladislav IV Vaza; la, Ladislaus IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV of Poland (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of ...

. He granted the town

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

in 1643. However, the name did not achieve popular usage, and the settlement became known as "a town" or "a new town" instead. The German name ''Neustadt Schirwindt'' is derived from the former town of Schirwindt, today a small military village called Kutuzovo, which lay just across the border. In 1900 the town began being referred to as ''Naumiestis'' (''New Town''). In 1934 the town was renamed ''Kudirkos Naumiestis'' in honor of the Lithuanian patriot and composer of the Lithuanian national anthem, Vincas Kudirka, who lived there from 1895 to his death in 1899 and is buried there. A well-organized Jewish community also lived in there and produced a number of prominent rabbis and Jewish scholars. Its name in

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

was נײַשטאָט־שאַקי (Nayshtot-Shaki). Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the town had about 700-800 Jewish residents.

Journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

Herman Bernstein Herman Bernstein ( yi, הערמאַן בערנשטײן, September 21, 1876 – August 31, 1935) was an American journalist, poet, novelist, playwright, translator, Jewish activist, and diplomat. He was the United States Ambassador to Albania and ...

was born here in 1876 and Rabbi

Abba Hillel Silver Abba Hillel Silver (January 28, 1893 – November 28, 1963) was an American Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel, though he saw such a settlement as a me ...

, who would become a prominent

American Jew American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...

ish leader, was born here in 1893. In 1941, an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

of Germans and Lithuanian collaborators murdered the local Jewish population in mass executions. Hundreds of people were massacred.

Notable people

Sammy Marks Sammy is a nickname, frequently for people named Samuel, and also an English spelling of the Arabic name Sami. People Music *Sammy Adams (born 1987), American rapper and songwriter *Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American songwriter *Sammy Davis Jr. (1 ...

- (Neustadt, 1844–1920), Lithuanian-born industrialist and financier in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. (See

Randlord Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control o ...

). Born the son of a Jewish tailor. *

Adolph Moses Radin Adolph Moses Radin (August 5, 1848 – February 5, 1909) was a Polish-born Jewish-American rabbi. Life Radin was born on August 5, 1848 in Neustadt-Schirwindt, Congress Poland, the son of Marcus Radin and Hinde Ritow. Radin received his Talmudi ...

(1848–1909), rabbi * Pranas Sederevičius (1905-1979), who, from 1951, created concrete sculptures in the garden of his home 'Kudirkos Naumiestis'. * Max Band (1901-1974), artist.

References

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia article

Old Jewish cemetery
Cities in Lithuania Cities in Marijampolė County Shtetls Suwałki Governorate Holocaust locations in Lithuania {{MarijampolėCounty-geo-stub