# Širvintos <table class="place-meta"> <tr><td>Hebrew</td><td dir="rtl">שירווינטוס</td></tr> <tr><td>Yiddish</td><td dir="rtl">שירווינט</td></tr> <tr><td>Local name(s)</td><td>Širvintos (Lithuanian), Shirvint (Yiddish), Szyrwinty (Polish)</td></tr> <tr><td>Region (today)</td><td>Vilnius County, Lithuania</td></tr> <tr><td>Coordinates</td><td>55.0361 24.9694</td></tr> </table> <table class="place-meta place-eras"> <tr><th>Era</th><th>Town name</th><th>Country / jurisdiction</th></tr> <tr><td>to 1795</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Grand Duchy of Lithuania)</td></tr> <tr><td>1795–1915</td><td>Shirvint</td><td>Russian Empire (Vilna Governorate)</td></tr> <tr><td>1920–1923</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Neutral zone between Lithuania and Poland</td></tr> <tr><td>1923–1940</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Republic of Lithuania</td></tr> <tr><td>1940–1941</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Soviet Union (Lithuanian SSR)</td></tr> <tr><td>1941–1944</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Nazi Germany (Reichskommissariat Ostland)</td></tr> <tr><td>1944–1990</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Soviet Union (Lithuanian SSR)</td></tr> <tr><td>1990–present</td><td>Širvintos</td><td>Lithuania (Vilnius County)</td></tr> </table> ## Overview Individual Jews (innkeepers) appear in Širvintos from the early 18th century, but an organized Jewish community formed only in the 19th century, growing from 216 Jews in 1847 to 1,413 — about 76% of the town — by the end of the century. In interwar Lithuania the Jews of Shirvint lived by trade, crafts, and peddling, owning the large majority of the town's shops, and supported a Tarbut Hebrew school, a Yiddish school, and Talmud Torah classes. After the German invasion of June 1941, soldiers burned the town's three synagogues. The Jews were forced into a ghetto in August and murdered on 18 September 1941 in the Pivonija forest. <small>Sources: https://www.jewish-heritage-lithuania.org/jewish-quarter/historical-jewish-quarter-in-sirvintos/, https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/lithuania5/lit5_166.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0irvintos, https://cdp.jewishgen.org/eastern-europe/lithuania/sirvintos</small> ## People with events here | Person | Event | | --- | --- | | [[Chava Leah Bernstein (b.1860)]] | Born 09/1860 | | [[Louis Morris Bernstein (b.1865)]] | Born 03/26/1865 | | [[Joshua Bernstein (b.1869)]] | Born May 4, 1869 | | [[Pauline E Bernstein (b.1875)]] | Born 11/1875 | | [[Joseph Tzvi Bernstein (b.1840)]] | Died Abt. 1880 | | [[Samuel Burnstein (b.1881)]] | Born 07/1881 | | [[Ida Bernstein (b.1885)]] | Born ~1885 | | [[Joseph Benjamin Bernstein (b.1890)]] | Born 04/15/1890 | | [[Juozas Zivilchinski (b.1892)]] | Born 1892 | | [[Jonas Phillip Bernstein (b.1893)]] | Born 08/25/1893 | | [[Lillian Bernstein (b.1896)]] | Born 1896 | | [[Edith Bernstein (b.1898)]] | Born 1898 |