Dzyatlava

Dzyatlava / Dyatlovo Дзятлава / Дятлово
Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary founded by Sejm Marshal Lew Sapieha
Flag Seal
Coordinates:
Country Subdivision	Belarus Hrodna voblast
Founded	1498
Population (2004)
• Total	8 300
Time zone	FET (UTC+3)
• Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+3)
Area code(s)	+375-15
Website	Dzyatlava Dyatlovo

Dzyatlava (Belarusian: Дзятлава, Lithuanian: Zietela, Russian: Дятлово, Polish: Zdzięcioł, Yiddish: זשעטל‎ Zhetl) is a town in Belarus in the Hrodna voblast, about 165 km southeast of Hrodna. The population is 8,900 (1995).

Dzyatlava was first referenced in documents from 1498, when it was granted to Prince Konstantin Ostrogski, who later built a wooden castle there. In the 17th century the settlement was owned by Lew Sapieha, who ordered a Catholic church to be erected on the main city square. The church was consecrated in 1646, renovated after a fire in 1743 and still stands. During the Great Northern War of the anti-Swedish alliance, Peter I of Russia visited Dzyatlava and stayed there for a week in January 1708. In the 18th century, the town was owned by Polish magnate Stanisław Sołtyk, who built a Baroque residence there in 1751.

Until World War II, Zdzięcioł (now Dzyatlava) belonged to the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. It was the seat of Gmina Zdzięcioł in Nowogródek Voivodeship. The population was composed predominantly of Polish Jews. The Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, and stationed in the Voivodeship area until the outbreak of their own war with Germany in June 1941. After the Soviet rapid retreat, and several months of Nazi ad hoc persecution, on February 22, 1942 the new German authorities officially created Zdzięcioł Ghetto. During the Holocaust, about 1,500 Jews were killed near the town in the Zdzięcioł massacres of 1942. The old Jewish cemetery is considered a minor landmark.

Lithuanian heritage

Being 80 kilometers south of present day Lithuania, environs of Dzyatlava had been known by linguists as the outermost indigenous Lithuanian speaking "island" apart from the contiguous Lithuanian language territory. The Lithuanian-speakers spoke a unique dialect, known as the "Zietela dialect"; it has been speculated that the ancestors of its speakers might have been Lithuanized Jotvingians. It drew the attention by many prominent linguists, such as Christian Schweigaard Stang, Vladimir Toporov, Kazimieras Būga and Juozas Balčikonis. In 1886, 1156 people in nearby villages declared themselves Lithuanians, however the real number might have been much greater. Until World War II there was a Lithuanian minority in surrounding villages. Only one woman (Kotryna Žukelytė-Jodienė) identified herself as Lithuanian in 1959 and at present the Lithuanian population is virtually extinct. The Vocabulary of Zietela Dialect has been published in Lithuania. In April 2010, the Lithuanian National Cross-Departmental Racquet Sport Tournament was held in Dzyatlava.

People

• Ivan Karizna, cellist
• Jacob ben Wolf Kranz of Dubno, the "Dubner maggid" (1741–1804)
• Yisrael Meir Kagan (Chofetz Chayim)
• Zvi Yosef Resnick, rabbi and rosh yeshivah (1841–1912)
• Mnachem Risikoff, rabbi and scholar (1866–1960), born in Dzyatlava
• Baruch Sorotzkin
• Tamara Lazakovich, European All-Around Co-Champion (1971) and Olympic medalist (1972) in gymnastics

See also

• Zhetel ghetto
• Dzyatlava massacres

External links

• Info of Dziatłava
• Photos on Radzima.org
• Diatłowo Community
• ארגון יוצאי ז'טל ודורות ההמשך