Alternate names: Jieznas [Lith], Yezne [Yid], Ezno [Rus], Jezno [Pol], Jezna, Yezna, Yeznas, Eznas, Iyeznas, Jeznas, Russian: Езно. יעזנה-Hebrew. 54°36' N, 24°10' E, 31 miles W of Trakai (Troki), 15 miles NNE of Alytus (Olita). 1866 Jewish population was 170. Yizkor: Le-zikharon shel kedoshei kehilat Jezna she-nispu bi-shnat 1941 (Jerusalem, 1967). Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), III, p. 581: "Jezno". Jews settled in Jieznas in the mid-19th century. In 1915, the Czarist government deported the Jews to Russia during WWI. Some returned after the war. Jewish population: 319 in 1921 and 68 Jewish families in 1930, most engaged in trade and crafts. About 1930, the Jews of Jieznas owned 16 shops (out of 18), two mills, three pubs (out of six), two state alcohol shops, and a branch of Jewish Volksbank. A synagogue, a Hebrew school with 50 pupils, a primary school, and a Jewish library existed. [March 2009]
Wikipedia article. [September 2010]
MASS GRAVE: Under Nazi occupation, Jieznas Rural District was part of Alytus uezd. Several dozen local communists were persecuted during the first weeks of the Nazi occupation. In mid-August 1941, mass arrests and shootings of the Jews started. Chief of the Rural District completed a list of all Jews of the town (350) and their property by mid-August. Shortly thereafter, local policemen and white-bands started arresting Jieznas' Jews for manual labor on August 16, 1941 (63 Jewish men and 26 Jewish women). In reaction, some town Jews hid in neighboring villages and towns. Jieznas' Jews and those from surrounding towns were murdered in Prienai on August 27, 1941. Several dozen Jews from Jieznas, sent to Alytus, were also gunned down in August 1941. On September 1, 1941, policemen and riflemen from Jieznas arrested the remaining women, children, and elderly. Jewish men were held in the cellar of the municipality building, while women and children were kept in the synagogue. That day, men of the town were driven to the lake (on left bank of the Mekšrupys River in Strušdiškes village) to dig a 50 m x 5 m trench. The next day (September 2), three German officers, two Lithuanian officers, and about 20 Lithuanian soldiers, probably Hamann's flying squad, arrived at Jieznas. Soon after, the fifty or so Jewish men were taken from the cellar and ordered to strip to underwear. Then Hamann's strikers, local policemen, and the riflemen drove the men to the massacre site. The women and children were brought in underwear from the synagogue. The Jewish men, then the women and children (26 men, 72 women and 46 children) were shot by seven white-bands that volunteered to help Hamann's squad while oher riflemen and policemen guarded the site. [March 2009]