Paneriai

Paneriai (Polish: Ponary, Yiddish: פאנאר‎/Ponar) is a neighborhood of Vilnius, situated about 10 kilometres away from the city center. It is the largest elderate in the Vilnius city municipality. It is located on low forested hills, on the Vilnius-Warsaw road. Paneriai was the site of the Ponary massacre, a mass killing of as many as 100,000 people from Vilnius and nearby towns and villages during World War II.

The village was probably founded some time in the 14th century. In 1390, it was acquired by the Vilnius Bishopric and soon became the main supplier of bricks to the nearby city. It shared a common history with Vilnius. After the final Partition of Poland in 1795, it became a part of the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire. During the November Uprising, on June 19, 1831, the Battle of Ponary took place near the village, in which the forces of Dezydery Chłapowski and Antoni Giełgud were defeated by Russian infantry.

As result of Russia's withdrawal from World War I, and the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the area was occupied by German forces and transferred to Belarusian People's Republic. With Germany's defeat several months later the territory underwent significant political upheaval, but following the Polish-Bolshevik War, and the Polish-Lithuanian War, it eventually became part of Poland. In 1939, after the Invasion of Poland (1939), the village was captured by the Soviet Union and transferred to Lithuania, only to be reannexed by Soviets the following year.

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