Varėna (; pl, Orany; yi, אוראַן ''Oran'') is a city in
Dzūkija,
Lithuania.
History
The town was founded in 1862 near the
Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
, south of
Sena Varėna (Old Varėna). At that time it was a small settlement, but following steady development it eventually became the center of the
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
. In the
interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...
period, following World War I, the town was
annexed by Poland, and renamed Orany. It was located near the then Polish-Lithuanian border, in the Wilno-Troki County (''Powiat wileńsko-trocki'') of the
Wilno Voivodeship. In 1939, following the
German-Soviet Invasion of Poland, Varėna was returned to Lithuania.
On September 9, 1942, all the Jews of the town of Varėna were collected in the local synagogue. On that day, even though the Germans had tried to prevent him from doing so, the priest Jonas Gylys entered the synagogue and encouraged the Jews to be brave in their last hours rather than convert to Christianity.
On the following day (or, according to another source, on the 9th itself) all of the Jews were taken from the synagogue to Eserekiai - a grove of trees near the village of Druckūnai, from the town, on the side of the road leading to the village. Two large pits had been dug there apart, one for the men and one for the women. Germans forced the victims in groups toward the pits and shot them there.
According to
the report of Karl Jaeger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3A, 831 Jews from Varėna (and the surrounding areas) – 541 men, 149 women, and 141 children – were killed on that day.
In 1946 around 2000 Poles
were repatriated to Poland.
Following industrialization in the 1970s, the town grew rapidly. Currently there are 9,240 residents in Varėna. The
Varėna district is the largest and most forested region in Lithuania.
People
* Lithuanian
painter and
composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis ( pl, Mikołaj Konstanty Czurlanis – ) was a Lithuanian painter, composer and writer.
Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau, and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been ...
was born in
Sena Varėna in 1875.
Twin towns — Sister cities
Varėna is
twinned with:
*
Mikołajki,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
References
External links
The murder of the Jews of Varėnaduring
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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, at
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
website.
Cities in Alytus County
Cities in Lithuania
Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania
Trakai Voivodeship
Troksky Uyezd
Wilno Voivodeship (1926–1939)
Holocaust locations in Lithuania
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