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Sapotskin (Belarusian: Сапоцкін, Russian: Сопоцкин, Polish: Sopoćkinie) is a small town in Belarus, 27 km (16.8 mi) north-west of Hrodna with circa 2,000 inhabitants.
Contents
Map of Sapockin, Belarus
History
Sapotskin was part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1560-1795) before Partitions of Poland. It was annexed to Prussia and was part of New East Prussia Province in 1795. Later, it was part of Lomza Department of Grand Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815). It was given to Russian Empire and successively part of Augustow Voivodeship (1815-1837), Augustow Governorate (1837-1867) and Suwałki Governorate (1867-1915) before German occupation between 1915 and 1918. It was a gmina center in Augustow powiat in Białystok Voivodeship at Second Polish Republic times.
In 1939 the area has become part of Belastok Region of the Belarussian SSR, with Sapotskin as a regional center. It was occupied by Wehrmacht between 1941 and 1944 and was part of Bezirk Bialystok. After liberation by Red Army, it was part of Grodno Region as a regional center. In 1959, Sapotskin became part of the Grodno region.
During World War II, in 1941 and 1942 nearly the entire Jewish population of Sapotskin was murdered by Nazi forces in the Holocaust. A memorial book about the town's Jewish shtetl has been translated into English and is available online.
Old photographs of the town have been collected.
Today, Sapotskin is one of the centers of the Polish minority in Belarus. It is also the only town in Belarus where the Polish population, consisting the majority, was allowed to use bilingual street signs.