Editing Lubavitch (section)

== During the Holocaust ==
When the war broke out, only about 120 Jewish families remained in the town, constituting about half of the town's residents.

Due to its proximity to the border, it was easy for the Nazis to capture it, and two years after the war broke out, in Sivan 5701, "Operation Barbarossa" of the Nazi forces to conquer the Soviet Union began, and in a short time succeeded in conquering considerable territory. The Germans came from the direction of Smolensk and destroyed and conquered everything in their path. On 26 Tammuz 5701, Lubavitch was captured and annexed to German territory.

At the end of Menachem Av (about a month after the city's capture), an order was issued that all Jews in the town were required to wear a yellow patch (round) on their outer visible garment. After a period, a new order was issued, and Jews were ordered to wear a yellow band. Jews were forbidden to visit public places and to speak with the non-Jewish population. Anyone who violated these decrees was sentenced to death. However, in practice, they executed even those who did not violate the decrees, including a group of young boys. In the period that followed, there were several instances of desecration of the Torah and elderly Jews, such as being forced to dance on Torah scrolls Rachmana litzlan and the like, after which they were shot to death by the Nazis.

On Shabbos Shuva, 6 Tishrei 5702, all remaining Jews were ordered to report to the town's central square and were allowed to take only their personal belongings. Upon arrival at the square, their personal belongings were forcibly taken from them, 17 Jews were arrested and executed, and the rest were transferred to a ghetto under guard by local police and SS troops who arrived from Rudnia. The ghetto was in one small, crowded street with 19 houses, where about 500 Jews were crammed, approximately 25 Jews in each house. The ghetto had no regular supply of food and heating materials, and the Jews suffered from starvation and exhaustion from prolonged work. During the day, they were sent to infrastructure work for the Germans, so they could continue their conquest of Russia.

The liquidation of the ghetto took place on 14 Cheshvan 5702. SS men and local police dragged Jews toward the local church, from where they were taken in groups and shot in a sewage ditch on the outskirts of the town. The Nazis murdered 483 Jews during the ghetto liquidation operation, Hashem yikom damam. These Jews were buried in a large mass grave in Lubavitch.

There were locals who assisted the Nazis. However, in the forest area around Lubavitch and up to Smolensk, there were many partisans who carried out, under the direction of Soviet authorities, retaliatory actions against the Nazis (one action: burning the bridge that passed through the town over the river). Many non-Jewish Soviet citizens, including some local school teachers, were executed on suspicion of helping the partisans.