Narewka
Encyclopedia
Narewka n is a village in Poland
, in Podlaskie Voivodeship
, Hajnówka County
, Gmina Narewka
. It is located near the border with Belarus
. Many of the inhabitants belong to the Belarusian minority in Poland
.
The village has a Catholic
and Orthodox churches. It used to have a synagogue
, but it was destroyed by the local Jewish population, angered after the Red Army
which invaded Poland in 1939
desecrated it by turning it into a storage. Most of the Jewish population perished during the Holocaust.
There was also a large population of Belarusians
and/or the Eastern Orthodox and Jews
(743 in 1878). Jews first came into the area in 1690 and there were two Jewish cemeteries in the vicinity, one to the north of the marketplace (no longer existing) and one in the district of Jałówka.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, in Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship , is a voivodeship in northeastern Poland. It borders on Masovian Voivodeship to the west, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship to the northwest, Lublin Voivodeship to the south, the Belarusssian Voblasts of Grodno and Brest to the east, the Lithuanian Counties of Alytus and...
, Hajnówka County
Hajnówka County
Hajnówka County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest...
, Gmina Narewka
Gmina Narewka
Gmina Narewka is a rural gmina in Hajnówka County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus...
. It is located near the border with Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. Many of the inhabitants belong to the Belarusian minority in Poland
Belarusian minority in Poland
Belarusian minority in Poland is composed of 48,700 people according to the Polish census of 2002. This number decreased in the last decades from over 300,000 due to an active process of assimilation. Most of them live in the Podlaskie Voivodeship....
.
The village has a Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and Orthodox churches. It used to have a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, but it was destroyed by the local Jewish population, angered after the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
which invaded Poland in 1939
Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...
desecrated it by turning it into a storage. Most of the Jewish population perished during the Holocaust.
There was also a large population of Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
and/or the Eastern Orthodox and Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
(743 in 1878). Jews first came into the area in 1690 and there were two Jewish cemeteries in the vicinity, one to the north of the marketplace (no longer existing) and one in the district of Jałówka.