Syaliba or Seliba (; ; ) is a village in

Babruysk District Babruysk district or Babrujsk district (; ) is a district (raion) of Mogilev region in Belarus. The administrative center is the city of Babruysk, though it is administratively separated from the district. In 2009, its population was 20,660. As o ...

, Mogilev Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. It is part of .

Geography

Seliba is located near the

Berezina River The Berezina or Byarezina (, ; ) is a river in Belarus and a right tributary of the Dnieper. The river starts in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The length of the Berezina is . The width of the river is 15–20 m, the maximum is 60 m. The ba ...

, only being blocked from access by the now-unpopulated village of , which separates Seliba from the Berezino district.

History

During the administration of

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

, Seliba was under jurisdiction of the

Igumensky Uyezd Igumensky Uyezd () was one of the uyezds of Minsk Governorate and the Governorate-General of Minsk of the Russian Empire and then of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic with its seat in Igumen from 1793 until its formal abolition in 1924 by S ...

in the

Minsk Governorate Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...

. In 1938, a sawmill in the village caught fire, and after barrels of oil caught fire, they exploded, burning down many dwellings and other buildings. An exodus of residents who lost their homes occurred following the blaze.

Jewish population

Seliba was a

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

home to many Jewish families during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the period of the

Democratic Republic A democratic republic is a form of government operating on principles adopted from a republic and a democracy. As a cross between two similar systems, democratic republics may function on principles shared by both republics and democracies. Whil ...

, soldiers from

interwar Poland 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. ...

beat and killed several Jewish residents of the village, and looted and burned property there. The settlement fell under Nazi control in July 1941. 10 Jewish men were killed in the initial invasion, and 6 women were killed after being raped. In December 1941, the Jewish population was killed along with the Jews of Bahushevichy and Pisiuta. A Yizkor book, ''Der ḥurbm fun mayn shṭeṭl un ire ḳdoyshim'', memorializes the village along with the town of Zalin. The village contains a Jewish cemetery, referred to simply as ''Kladbishche Yevreyskoye'' (Hebrew Cemetery).

Demographics

In the 1897 All-Russia Census, the population was recorded at 982 people. Among that population, 893, or 90.9%, were Jewish. By the 1999 census, the population was 117 people. By the 2009 census, the population was 2013 people.

References

Babruysk district Populated places in Mogilev region Historic Jewish communities in Belarus Jewish Belarusian history Villages in Belarus {{Belarus-geo-stub