Maria STERNEK-STERNAK

20 MAR 1886 - 14 NOV 1966

• BIRTH: 20 MAR 1886, Slonim, Poland
• BURIAL: St Joseph Cemetery, South Bend, In
• EMIGRATION: 6 JUN 1911, NYC
• DEATH: 14 NOV 1966, South Bend, IN

INDEX

[N8961] Slonim has been known by several versions of its name: Slonim was first mentioned in chronicles in 1252 as Uslonim and in 1255 as Vslonim. According to one version (which is also considered to be an official one), the name of the city originates from the Slavic word 'zaslona' (a screen), meaning that the city used to be an outpost at the southern border of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Another version, proposed by Jazep Stabrou(ski, states that Slonim is a derivative from 'Uzslenimas' in the Lithuanian language simply means 'beyond the valley'. Russian historians also tried to connect the name 'Slonim' to 'slon' ('an elephant' in Russian) in the 19th century. However, this version was never taken seriously. The earliest record is of a wooden fort on the left bank of the Shchara river in the 11th century, although there may have been earlier settlement. The area was disputed between Lithuania and Kievan Rus' in early history and it changed hands several times. In 1040, the Kievans won control of the area after a battle but lost Slonim to the Lithuanians in 1103. The Rutenians retook the area early in the 13th century but were expelled by a Tartar invasion in 1241 and the town was pillaged. When, later in the year, the Tartars withdrew, Slonim became Lithuanian again. In the second half of the 13th century Slonim finally became a part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1569, Lithuania and Poland united and Slonim became an important regional centre within Commonwealth of Lithuania-Poland. From 1631 to 1685 the city flourished as the seat of the Lithuanian diet. The Commonwealth of Lithuania-Poland was dismantled in a series of three "partitions" in the second half of the 18th century and divided among its neighbours, Germany, Austria and Russia which took the largest portion of the territory. Slonim was in the area annexed by Russia. The wars had damaged Slonim, but in the 18th century, a local landowner, count Oginski, encouraged the recovery of the area; a canal was dug to connect the Shchara with the Dnieper river, now known as the Oginski Canal. Ogin'ski also built a greater complex, combining an opera theater, a school of music and a school of ballet, a printing house. Slonim, Paradna Street before World War II. Russian control lasted until 1915, when the German army captured the town. After the First World War, the Slonim area was disputed between the Soviet Union and the newly recreated state of Poland. The town suffered badly in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920. It was ceded by the Bolsheviks to Poland in the 1921 Peace of Riga and became a part of Nowogr©ddek Voivodeship (1919-39). Slonim was one of the many towns in Poland and Russia that had a significant Jewish population. The imposing Great Synagogue, built in 1642, survived the destruction and brutal Nazi(Einsatzgruppen) murder of the 10,000 strong Slonim Jewish community in 1942. The 10 small synagogues around the Great Synagogue, did not. There were dozens of small Synagogues in Slonim called Stiblach. In 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union resulted in the invasion of Poland by the two powers and its division between them. Slonim was in the area designated by the Pact to fall within the Soviet sphere of influence. The Soviets placed that area within the Byelorussian SSR. Two years later, Germany invaded the Soviets (Operation Barbarossa) and Slonim was captured. Soon after, 70% of Slonim's Jews had been killed in a single Nazi operation[2] (9,000 on 14 November 1941).[3] The second mass murder of 8,000 Jews took place in 1942.[4] In 1944, the Soviet Union retained possession of this part of the former Poland, as agreed between the Allies. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Belarus became an independent state.