In the interwar period, the Second Polish Republic was inhabited by 2.7-3.1 million Jews – about 10 % of Poland’s total population. In some localities it happened that they made up 100 % of the residents.

In 1939. Germany attacked Poland and started the Second World War. The hecatomb of human lives unleashed by the German terror machine changed the population profile of Poland forever. Whole masses of people, including the vast majority of Jews who were Polish citizens, disappeared as a result of the extermination.

Two censuses

During the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939), two population censuses were carried out, in 1921 and 1931. The first one included question such as whether persons identified themselves as Jewish and what language they spoke. The questionnaire also included the criterion of nationality.  The census documents showed that there were about 3 million Jews living on the territory of the Polish state, who constituted about 10 % of the population of Poland at that time.

Only Jews lived there

According to statistics, in 1921 it turned out that there were two villages in Poland which were inhabited exclusively by Jews: these were Iwaniki and Sinai Colony. Both villages are today in Belarus – the first in the Brest region, as part of the village of Posienicze, and the second is now part of the village of Krzywicze (Grodno region)).

Iwaniki was established in the 19th century as a result of administrative actions of Tsarist Russia. In the interwar period, 235 Jews lived there.  Those who did not flee after the Germans entered the area were murdered by them. Today, the areas of this village belong entirely to the village of Posienicze.

The Sinai Colony had only 78 inhabitants. In the 1930s, some families decided to leave for Palestine (Riszon le-Zion and Petach Tikva). Those who stayed did not survive the Second World War. The Germans deported them to the ghetto in Dereczyn and murdered there.