Shklow ( be, Шклоў, ; Škłoŭ; russian: link=no, Шклов, ''Shklov''; yi, שקלאָוו, ''Shklov'', lt, Šklovas, pl, Szkłów) is a town in
Mogilev Region,
Belarus, located north of
Mogilev on the
Dnieper river. It has a
railway station on the line between
Orsha and
Mogilev. , its population was 16,439.
History

* 1535: First records about the town.
* 1654, 1656: Two battles, see
battles of Shkloŭ
* April 10, 1762: Coat of arms.
Shklov was an important
Jewish religious center. There was a
yeshiva there in the 18th century. Shklov became the center of the
Haskalah movement.
At the end of the 19th century, there were 5542 Jews in the town. Jews traded for a living. A dozen families worked in the Jewish
kolkhoz ''Iskra''. In 1939, only 2132 Jews remained in Shklov. The
Germans occupied the town on July 12, 1941.
The first
execution of Jews took place just a few days into the occupation. The Germans shot 25 Jewish men in Lenin Park. At the end of July 1941, two
ghettos were established in the neighboring village of Ryzhkovichi. In August 1941, the
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 ...
arrived in the town and gathered 84 Jews under the pretext of sending them to forced labor. In fact, they were taken to the village of Semyonovka and were shot in the
kolkhoz. In September 1941, the Jews were taken to a ravine in Khoduly, between the villages of Putniki and Zarechye. They had to undress and lie in the ditch before being shot. According to Soviet sources, 3200 Jews were killed in Shklow and the surrounding neighborhood.
Alexander Lukashenko, President of
Belarus since 1994, held a position as the director of the construction materials plant in Shklow Raion before he became a
kolkhoz director and then moved into politics.
Transport
* 1 railway station
* 3 bus routes
People
The Jewish family name
Shklovsky or Shklover indicates that the person or their ancestors come from Shkloŭ.
*
Semyon Zorich, Serbian-born Russian General who founded an estate in Shkloŭ (Shklov).
*
Yitzhak Salkinsohn, born in Shklov
*
Joshua Zeitlin, rabbinical scholar and philanthropist, born here
*
Yehoshua Leib Diskin
Moshe Yehoshua Yehuda Leib Diskin (1818–1898), also known as the Maharil Diskin, was a leading rabbi, Talmudist, and Biblical commentator. He served as a rabbi in Łomża, Mezritch, Kovno, Shklov, Brisk, and, finally, Jerusalem, after moving to ...
, rabbi in Shklov
*
Rogatchover Gaon
Joseph Rosen (Yiddish: יוסף ראָזין, ''Yosef Rosin''; 1858 – 5 March 1936) known as the Rogatchover Gaon (Genius of Rogachev) and Tzofnath Paneach (Decipherer of Secrets—the title of his main work), was a rabbi and one of the mo ...
, studied in Shklov under
Yehoshua Leib
*
Steve Rosenberg
Steven Barnett Rosenberg (born 5 April 1968) is a British journalist for BBC News. He has been the BBC's Moscow correspondent almost continuously since 2003, except for a stint as Berlin correspondent between 2006 and 2010. In 2022 Rosenberg's r ...
, BBC Russian Correspondent, whose Great-Grandfather was from Shklov and emigrated to
England
*
Pavel Axelrod (1850–1928), Russian
Menshevik
The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The factions eme ...
revolutionary
*
Zalman Shneur
Zalman Shneour (born Shneur Zalkind; 1887 – 20 February 1959) was a prolific Yiddish and Hebrew poet and writer. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Biography
Shneour was born in Shklov (Škłoŭ) in Belarus (then part of ...
(1887–1959), Hebrew and Yiddish poet
*
Baruch Schick of Shklov (1744–1808) rabbi and scholar, Hebrew author and translator
*
Josef Gusikov
Michal Josef Gusikov (born Yehiel-Michiel, also spelt Guzikow or Gusikow) (2 September 1806 – 21 October 1837) was a Belarusian-Jewish klezmer who gave the first performances of klezmer music to West European concert audiences on his 'wood ...
,
klezmer
Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...
musician, born in Shklov
*
Naum Eitingon, general of the
NKVD and murderer of
Leon Trotsky, born in Shklov
*
Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov, Rabbi, disciple of the
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of ...
* Menachem Mendel of Shklov, Rabbi, disciple of the
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of ...
, leader of
Perushim migration to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
in 1808
* Rabbi
Moshe Feinstein, studied and lived in Shklov before emigrating to the United States to become the preeminent Torah sage and ''
posek'' of his generation
Gallery
See also
*
Battle of Holowczyn
The Battle of Holowczyn or Holofzin or Golovchin was fought in July 1708 between the Russian army, and the Swedish army, led by Charles XII of Sweden, only 26 years of age at the time. Despite difficult natural obstacles and superior enemy artil ...
References
External links
Photos on Radzima.orgSHKLOV in the JewishEncyclopediaThe murder of the Jews of Shkloŭduring
World War II, at
Yad Vashem website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shklou
Towns in Belarus
Populated places in Mogilev Region
Shklow District
Vitebsk Voivodeship
Mogilyovsky Uyezd (Mogilev Governorate)
Shtetls
Holocaust locations in Belarus
Populated places on the Dnieper in Belarus