Kaniūkai (; ) is a village in the

Šalčininkai district municipality Šalčininkai District Municipality () is one of 60 district municipalities in Lithuania. The municipality is part of the Vilnius County and is located in southeastern Lithuania, next to the Belarus–Lithuania border. The south-eastern border ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. According to the 2011 census, its population was 125.

History

Before 1939 Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai) was located in the

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

county of the Nowogródek Voivodeship,

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. It was

occupied ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October ...

by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in September 1939 and was transferred to Lithuania according to the

Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty (, ) was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius ...

. The village became part of the Jašiūnai Municipality,

Eišiškės Eišiškės (, , /Eishishki, /Eishyshki, /Eyshishok/Eishishok) is a city in southeastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. It is situated on a small group of hills, surrounded by marshy valley of Verseka and Dumblė Rivers. The rivers divid ...

County before the

Occupation of the Baltic states The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its Dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Naz ...

by the Soviet Union on 3 August 1940. Later it was briefly part of the German

Reichskommissariat Ostland The (RKO; ) was an Administrative division, administrative entity of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. It served as the German Civil authority, civilian occupation regime in Lithuania, La ...

before returning to the

Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; ; ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was ''de facto'' one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944 ...

(since 1990, Lithuania). During World War II, it was the site of the

Koniuchy massacre The Koniuchy massacre () or the Kaniūkai massacre () was a World War II massacre of civilians, mostly women and children, carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) on 29 January 1944 by a Soviet partisan unit together ...

Soviet partisans Soviet partisans were members of Resistance during World War II, resistance movements that fought a Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war against Axis powers, Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Territories of Poland an ...

which included a detachment of

Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance under Nazi rule, Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators during W ...

.Historical Dictionary of Lithuania
Saulius A. Suziedelis, page 146-147Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe

John-Paul Himka John-Paul Himka (born May 18, 1949) is an American-Canadian historian and retired professor of history of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Himka received his BA in Byzantine-Slavonic Studies and Ph.D. in History from the University of Michi ...

and Joanna Michlic, pages 339-342

References

Villages in Vilnius County {{VilniusCounty-geo-stub