Alternate names: Radun Радунь [Rus], Raduń [Bel, Pol], Radin [Yid], Rodin, Russian/Belarusian: Радунь, Radin, Radunj, Radunskaya. 1900 Jewish population: 896. 54°03' N, 25°00' E, 16 miles NW of Lida. Radun was in the second uchastok of Lida district, which was Vilna Guberniya of Lithuania and then Grodno Guberniya of Russia, and Nowogrodskie Powiat of Poland between WWI and WWII. Voranava district, Hrodna Voblast. home of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, known as the Chofetz Chaim, and his Raduń Yeshiva.
- Shtetlink. [March 2009]
- LitvakSIG
- JewishGen Belarus SIG
- Museum of the History of Polish Jews
- Shtetl Finder (1980), p. 83: "Rodin, Radin".
- Pinkas HaKehilot, Poland, Vol. 8 (2005), p. 583-585: "Radun"
- Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), pp. 1049-1050: "Radun".
- Jewish Virtual Library [Oct 2014]
- Radun' - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Heritage & Heritage Sites | Jewish Heritage Europe [Aug 2015]
- PGSA - Town Translations:"Radun in Belarus, is a small government-owned town on the Radunka River, Lida powiat, in the 4th political district, center of a gmina and a rural district; it is an estate belonging to the treasury, 30 km. northwest of Lida, 37 km. from Wasiliszki, and 82 km. from Wilno, on a side road which in the 16th century was the shortest highway between Wilno and Krakow. In the year 1881 there were 1,526 inhabitants (757 male and 769 female); in the year 1866 there were 91 houses and 869 inhabitants (361 Catholics and 508 Jews); it has a wooden Catholic church and chapel, a synagogue, gmina administrative office, and a public school, which in the year 1885-6 was attended by 56 boys and 2 girls. It is the property of the treasury, which gave the lands back to the peasants for purchase. About 2 km. from the town, on a vast plain near the village of Horodyszcze, is a large trench, and even though the inhabitants call it the "Swedish" trench, its shape and the name of the adjoining the village shows that it was a fortified citadel of long ago. According to Balinski (Star. Polska, III:259), Radun was called Radomi by 16th century travelers and writers.
This small town was once a royal estate, from which the income went to pay for the king's court and table. According to a 1538 inspection, it had 7 streets there, in addition to the market square, and 210 houses of Christians - Jews were forbidden to settle there. It had 35 saloons for selling beer, 7 for mead and one only for liquor. Later Radun became the site of a starostwo not affiliated with a grod, and in 1770 that office included the town with appurtenances. In the year 1766 Jozef Tyszkiewicz, the castellan of Mscislaw [now Mstsislav, ..., in Belarus] bought it, and on it he paid a kwarta of 2,616 zloty's, 5 groszy, and a hyberna of 2,690 Polish z1oty's. At the Sejm of 1773-75 the Commonwealth government addressed recurring disputes over the borders of this starostwo by passing a separate law designating six officials as ad hoc commissioners to settle the matter once and for all.
In the Metryka Litewska the series of Radun starosta's begins toward the end of the 15th century with Janusz Kostewicz (1498-1527), followed by: Jan Hlebowicz (1527), Szymko Mackiewicz (1532-1541), Stanislaw Kiezgajlo (1546-1549), Augustyn Fursowicz (1551), Jurij Wolczkowicz (1556), Jan Hercyk (1569), and Mikolaj Talwosz (1581).
The Catholic parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary dates from 1838, transferred from the village of Kolesniki [now Kalesninkai, Lithuania], due to the closing of the Carmelite monastery there. Previously there had existed a church from the year 1752, which burned down; rebuilt in 1801, it suffered the same fate again. There is a small chapel in the cemetery. The Catholic parish, of the Radun deanery, has 7,522 souls. At one time there was a branch of the church in the village of Dubicze. The Radun deanery consists of 11 parishes: Radun, Ejszyszki [now Eisiskis, Lithuania], Wasiliszki [now Vasiliski, Belarus], Nacza [Nac], Bieniakonie [Benyakoni], Zablocie [Zabalac], Wawiorka, Iszczolna, Woronow [Voranawa], Ossow and Soleczniki [now Salcinikai, Lithuania], for a total of 58,768 souls.
In this parish the terrain is level and treeless, overgrown in some places with bushes and covered with marshes. The soil is sandy, with a lot of gravel. It is watered by the following rivers: Dzitwa, Pielasa, Radunka, Naczka, Sopunka, Jodub. The rural district includes the town of Radun and the villages of Juciuny, Straczuny, Horodyszcze, Jatowty, Popiszki, Skladance, Wojkunce, and the nobles' farm settlement of Poradun, for a total as of the year 1864, according to the treasury rewizja of peasants, of 565 serfs, 3 men of jednodworzec status, and 32 free men. The gmina of Radun belongs to the 3rd district chamber of peasant affairs in the town of Ejszyszki as well as to the 3rd conscription center for the same place in Lida district, and consists of four rural districts: Radun, Mozejki, Kiwance, and Pielasa, including 67 villages with 536 houses, inhabited by 6,969 peasants. According to the 1864 census, there were in the gmina 1,740 serfs, according to the treasury rewizja of peasants 346 enfranchised farmers, 85 of jednodworzec status, 56 Jewish farmers, and 32 free men, for a total of 2,259 souls.
Source: Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1888, vol. 9, p. 450-451]. Translated by Barbara Proko, Boulder, CO and edited by Fred Hoffman. From the PGSA Summer 1998 Bulletin."
The Holocaust Chronicle PROLOGUE [Aug 2015]The fate of the Jewish Community in Radun -... This video depicts the lives of Jews in the town of Radun before and during the War, until the destruction of community. [Aug 2015]
- Jewish history with pictures [Aug 2015]
MASS GRAVE
They were brought to the marketplace in the middle of the town and made to kneel with heads down. Those who tried to escape were shot. 3,400 Jews of Radun were taken to the Jewish cemetery and shot at specially prepared pits-- over 1,600 women and over 800 children. A group of Jews dug and filled the graves. photos of the massacre site of 2130 Jews of the town on 10 May 1942 and memorial. [April 2009]
The mass grave and a reconstructed Jewish cemetery contains the matzeva of the Chafetz Chaim as well as dozens of other gravestones. Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. [date?]
Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Avraham Aviel
CEMETERY
Cemetery photos. [February 2010]
Hebrew website and photo [Apr 2014]: "forced labor. Edicts of the Jews and their property confiscated. Established a Judenrat which six members, led by Noah Dolinsky. In October 1941, the Jewish ghetto Radin and the environment at the northern end of Radin. Jews were living in 1700. On May 8, 1942 surrounded the ghetto, 100 Jews took to dig out of Radin. Jews generally attacked the Germans and 17 Jews were able to escape. After complete ignorance which killed about 1,000 Jews. 300 Jews remained in the ghetto were transferred on June 7, 1942 the ghetto Stz'otz'in (50 km south of birth, county Novardok).About 600 Jews Radin and environment fled to the forests and joined the partisans Russians and Poles (an army approaching), it is not always welcomed them into their ranks, most were murdered or killed. By the end of the war survived 32 Jews Radin. After the war, the Jews returned Radin town, a short time later moved to western Poland and others immigrated to Israel." Buried there:
Rabbi Naftali Trop, Rabbi Mordechai Riov, Rabbi Moshe Lndinsky, Rabbi Baruch Feivelson [date?]
On the road from Raduń to Nowy Dwór, about 1 km SWof the town is the Jewish cemetery on the flat land to the east of the road. A concrete semi-manufactured wall with two gates in the north and in the west surround this rectangular 2.8 ha cemetery. Some cleaning has been done and the cemetery well kempt. The north side is part of the old cemetery with graves stretching about 100 meters southwards, but none are visible to the south. The west gate main entrance with stylized six metal poles holding a large vertical Mogen David made from metal angle plates. Fewer than one hundred 19th century matzevot are visible in the old northern part of the cemetery, lining the alley from north to south, probably not their original place. In the middle of the cemetery to the west is a row of seven sarcophagi made from concrete wiht no symbols or inscriptions. 90 meters past the entry gate is a mass grave of Jews from Raduń killed by Nazis in May 1942, 60-meters long with a metal fence, inside is a tall stele made from black granite with inscription in Russian, English and Hebrew commemorating the victims of the Holocaust reading: " ZDJES POKOITSJA 2130 JEWRIEJEW ZWJERSKI UNICZTOŻJENYCH NIEMCAMI I ICH POSOBNIKAMI 10 MAJA 1942 G.", "2130 JEWS WERE SLAUGHTERED AND BURIED IN THIS MASS GRAVE BY THE GERMANS AND THEIR HELPERS ON 10 MAY 1942". Behind a mass grave is a contemporary tombstone of Adam Abraszka Rogowski with no burial date. Thecemetery is covered with grass with young deciduous trees behind the mass grave. The wall/fence is lined with young spruce. Source: Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Województwo nowogródzkie. Lewkowska Anna, Lewkowski Jacek, Walczak Wojciech. 2008. See photos from source. [Oct 2014]
Pictures [August 2015]
[UPDATE] Investigation of Execution Site by Yahad-in-Unum [August 2017]