Lyakhavichy

Liachavičy Ляхавічы
Liahavichy Castle in the 17th century
Seal
Liachavičy
Coordinates: 53°02′N 26°16′E
Country	Belarus
Voblast	Brest Voblast
Raion	Lyakhavichy Raion
Mentioned	1572
City status	1931
Elevation	180 m (590 ft)
Population  (2008)
• Total	10,997
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code	225372
Area code	(+375) 1633
Vehicle registration	1
Website	liahovichi.brest-region.by

Liachavičy (Belarusian: Ляхавічы, pronounced [ˈlʲaxavʲitʂɨ], Russian: Ляховичи, Polish: Lachowicze, Yiddish: לעכאוויטש Lekhavitsh, Lithuanian: Liachivičai) is a city in the southwestern Belarusian voblast (province) of Brest.

History

For many centuries, it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The city's fortress, Liachavičy Castle, survived all sieges during the Russo–Polish War (1654–1667), and was nicknamed the Jasna Góra of Lithuania.

During World War II, Liachavičy was under German occupation from 26 June 1941 to 5 July 1944. More than 3,000 Jewish inhabitants lived in the town, swelled by an influx of refugees fleeing from central and western Poland. In November, 1941, Jews were gathered in the central square, then taken and killed in a sand pit near the village of Lotva by an Einsatzgruppe. A new massacre took place in June 1942 when 300 Jews kept prisoners in a ghetto were killed in a place close to the previous one. That day, a revolt in the ghetto took place and several Jews managed to join the partisans.

Personalities

• Alexander Mukdoyni (Kopel) (1878–1958) Polish-American theatre critic who wrote in Yiddish
• Sergiusz Piasecki (1901–1964) - Polish writer and soldier
• Rabbi Mordechai Yofeh of Lechovitz (1742 - 1810) - disciple of R' Aharon of Karlin (I), and his successor, R. Shlomo of Karlin,
• Rabbi Noach Malovitzky of Lechovitz (1832 - ) - Son and successor of R' Mordechai of Lechovitz.
• Nachman Shlomo Greenspan (1878–1961) - Rabbi and Talmud scholar
• Jakub Szynkiewicz (1884–1966) - first mufti of the newly independent Poland in 1925
• Will Herberg (1906-1977) - Jewish-American intellectual

External links

• Lyakhovichi Shtetl homepage