Village in Vitebsk Region, Belarus
Luzhki (; ; ) is an agrotown in Sharkawshchyna District, Vitebsk Region, in northern Belarus. It is located from Padsvillye, from Sharkawshchyna, and from Vitebsk. In 1999, it had a population of 905.
History.
Łużki was a former possession of the Sapieha family until Aleksander Sapieha sold it to Walerian Antoni Żaba around 1734. Walerian Antoni Żaba founded a Piarist college and the Baroque Saint Michael church in the settlement. Later on, the town passed to the Plater and Czapski noble families.
In the interbellum, Łużki, as it was known in Polish, was a town administratively located in the Dzisna County in the Wilno Voivodeship of Poland. According to the 1921 Polish census, the population was 49.3% Polish, 25.5% Belarusian and 23.9% Jewish.
Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Łużki was first occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, then by Nazi Germany until 1944, where it was administered as part of "Generalbezirk Weißruthenien" of "Reichskommissariat Ostland". In 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established in the settlement, and Jews were also subjected to forced labour. On 1 June 1942, the ghetto was dissolved and 528 Jews were massacred in a forest near the village. In 1944, the settlement was re-occupied by the Soviet Union, which eventually annexed it from Poland in 1945.
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;