Editing Grodno (section)

===World War II===
[[File:German Army near the Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross in Hrodna during World War II in 1940.jpg|thumb|left|German Army in Grodno during World War II in 1940]]
During the [[Invasion of Poland|Polish Defensive War]] of September to October 1939 the garrison of Grodno was mostly used for the formation of numerous military units fighting against the invading [[Wehrmacht]]. In the course of the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] (initiated on 17 September 1939) heavy fighting took place in the city between Soviet and improvised Polish forces, composed mostly of [[march battalion]]s and volunteers.<ref name="Piesakowski0">''The Fate of Poles in the USSR 1939–1989'', by Tomasz Piesakowski {{ISBN |0-901342-24-6}} Page 36</ref> In the course of the [[Battle of Grodno (1939)|Battle of Grodno]] {{awrap|(20-22 September)}} the [[Red Army]] lost some hundred men (according to Polish sources; according to Soviet sources – 57 killed and 159 wounded) and also 19 tanks and 4 APCs destroyed or damaged. The Polish side suffered at least 100 killed in action, military and civil, but losses still remain uncertain in detail (Soviet sources claim 644 killed and 1543 captives with many guns and machine guns etc. captured). Over 300 captured Polish defenders of the city, including Polish Army officers and youth, were massacred afterwards by the Soviets.<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Agresja sowiecka na Polskę i okupacja wschodnich terenów Rzeczypospolitej 1939–1941|year=2019|language=pl|location=Białystok-Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|page=9|isbn=978-83-8098-706-7}}</ref> After the Soviet forces surrounded the engaged Polish units, the escaping Polish units withdrew to Lithuania.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

[[File:Horadnia, Zamkavaja. Горадня, Замкавая (1941-44).jpg|thumb|Grodno skyline with the [[Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Grodno|Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary]] (left) and [[St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Grodno|Grodno Cathedral]] (right) in 1941-1944]]
In accordance with the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of August 1939, the city was [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupied]] by the Soviet Union and annexed into the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]]. Several thousand of the city's [[Polish people|Polish]] inhabitants were [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deported]] to remote areas of the Soviet Union. On 1–2 October 1940, negotiations were held in Grodno between the Lithuanian and Belarusian communists to resolve territorial disputes between the [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuanian SSR]] and Byelorussian SSR.<ref name="Sapoka2020">{{cite web |last1=Šapoka |first1=Gintautas |title=Aprašykime mažai žinomus 1939–1940 m. Lietuvos istorijos įvykius |url=https://alkas.lt/2020/12/21/g-sapoka-aprasykime-mazai-zinomus-1939-1940-m-lietuvos-istorijos-ivykius/ |website=Alkas.lt |access-date=22 June 2024 |language=lt |date=21 December 2020}}</ref> The Lithuanians received less territories than they were appointed by the Supreme Soviet Decree of 3 August 1940 and on 6 November 1940 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union adopted a new decree regarding the borders of the Byelorussian SSR and Lithuanian SSR.<ref name="Sapoka2020"/> The Byelorussian SSR transferred cities and surroundings of [[Švenčionys]], [[Dieveniškės]], [[Druskininkai]] to the Lithuanian SSR that were mostly inhabited by Lithuanians and the Lithuanians began administrating them in January 1941.<ref name="SantykiaiVle"/><ref name="Sapoka2020"/> According to a 26 September 1940 meeting protocol of the Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of Byelorussia]], [[Panteleimon Ponomarenko]], the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia, narrated during the meeting that previously he discussed with the Soviet dictator [[Joseph Stalin]] the issue of the territorial transfers between the Byelorussian SSR and the Lithuanian SSR and Stalin said to him that if he will not transfer territories where there are many Lithuanians he will be punished.<ref>{{cite web |title=«Літоўскіх таварышаў не дражніць». У 1940-м БССР прымусілі аддаць Друскенікі, Сьвянцяны і Салечнікі |url=https://www.svaboda.org/a/30206047.html |website=[[Радыё Свабода]] |language=be}}</ref>

On 23 June 1941, the city came under [[Nazi Germany|German]] occupation that lasted until 16 July 1944. It was administered as part of the [[Bialystok District]]. Surviving inmates of the Grodno prison were released and the scale of the [[NKVD prisoner massacres]] revealed.<ref name="ipn/pdf">
[[Institute of National Remembrance]], [http://ipn.gov.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/67615/1-30614.pdf Lato 1941 – polski dramat (Summer of 1941 – the Polish drama).]{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot= InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Special Issue, 22 June 2011. PDF file, 1.63 MB.
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In the course of [[Operation Barbarossa]] in World War II, the majority of Jews were herded by the Nazis into the [[Grodno Ghetto]] and subsequently killed in [[extermination camps]].<ref>Felix Zandman, J. Szwarc and A. May, eds. (2016). "Liquidation of the Ghettos and the Deportations to the Camps (November 2, 1942 – March 12, 1942)". The German Occupation - 4. Lost Jewish Worlds.</ref> The Germans also operated a Nazi prison in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1578|title=Gefängnis Hrodna|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=7 May 2022|language=de}}</ref>