Švenčionys ( Polish Święciany , Belarusian Свянцяны , German Swenziany , Yiddish סווענציאן / Swentzian) is a city 84 kilometers north of Vilnius and the seat of the eponymous Rajongemeinde in Lithuania . Švenčionys has 5658 inhabitants (as of 2005), of which about a third belong to the Polish minority of Lithuania.
It was one of the oldest cities in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . It was an important center during the November Polish uprising against the Russian Empire (1830-1831). Between the world wars, the city was part of the Second Polish Republic . At the end of the 19th century, 52% of the population were Jews, 22% Russians, 20% Poles and 4.5% Lithuanians. The city belonged to the Tsarist Vilna governorate . During the German occupation in World War II , one of the four ghettos in Lithuania was located in Švenčionys . Of the approximately 4,000 Jews, half of the city's total population, only a few survived.
Lithuania
