Vital statistics:
1662: The first record of
Jews living in Kvedarna: there were 3 men and 4 women.
1784: The 1784 Census
taken by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania shows 37 households, and 137 persons.
1795: Russia annexes
large parts of Lithuania as part of the Third Partition of Poland, and
begins to establish the Pale of Settlement.
1816: The Russian
1816 Revision List (which may not have been exhaustive) shows 34
Jewish households in Kvedarna, numbering some 150 persons. 9 of those
households are recorded as having moved to Kvedarna in the five years since
the last Revision List
1897: By 1897, there
were 671 Jews (120 families) out of a total population of 1190 (56%).
Many of the Jewish population made their living out of trades related
to wood, and there were a number of prosperous wood merchants. Others
worked in trade (flax, chickens and grains) and in crafts.
1923: Before World
War I, when there was fighting between Germany and Russia in the area,
most of the Jews in Kvedarna fled, and only a portion returned after the
war, when the independent state of Lithuania was created. Nevertheless,
in 1923 there were 394 Jews (80 families) out of a total population of 950
(41%).
1941: The larger part
of the Jewish community of Kvedarna was exterminated in
June 1941, roughly a week after the German army invaded Russia, accompanied
by the four einsatzgruppen, units specially formed to execute the
Jews in Russia.
Reference: Dov Levin: Pinkas Hatekufot
Lita, 1996
* * *
* *
|