About Naishtot (Kudirkos-Naumiestis; was also known as Wladyslawow)

Written by Joseph Rosin:

Naishtot is situated at the south-western part of Lithuania near the border with East Prussia (now Russia) where the small stream, Shirvinta, flows into the Sesupe river. The Shirvinta stream was the border between Lithuania and Prussia and a concrete bridge linked Naishtot with the Prussian town Schirvindt.

Naishtot is listed by the name Novomiasto in documents dating back to the sixteenth century. In 1643 Queen Cecilia Renate granted the town the Magdeburg Rights (Self Rule) and named it Wladislawow - after her husband King Wladislaw the Fourth.

Until 1795 Naishtot was part of the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom. After the third division of Poland by the three superpowers of those times - Russia, Prussia and Austria-- Lithuania became partly Russian and partly Prussian. The part of the state on the left side of the Neman river (Nemunas), including Naishtot, was handed over to Prussia, and this town, called then Neustadt was under the Prussian rule from 1795 until1807. During these years Naishtot was a county center. Jews settled in Naishtot at the beginning of the 18th century. Initially Jews settled around the Synagogue and the Beth-Midrash, and in the quarter near the Sesupe river. In 1797, 429 Jews and 565 Christians lived in town.

During the years 1807-1813, Naishtot belonged to the "Great Dukedom of Warsaw" and was part of the Bialystok district. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, all of Lithuania was annexed to Russia. In 1819 Naishtot got back its old name Wladislawow. This name endured until WW1. In 1835 there were 350 houses in town. That year Naishtot had 4,413 residents, 3,348 Jews among them - (76%). Under the Russian rule Naishtot started to grow, and in 1867 the town was declared a district center.

The big fire of 1865 caused the destruction of the Jewish quarter. Later the Jewish area spread out, and the burnt wooden houses were replaced by brick homes. In May 1881 a big fire destroyed 200 Jewish and Christian homes and all belongings. In 1887, another fire destroyed 87 houses and in 1889 in just two weeks two fires broke out and 20 houses were burnt. In 1871 and in 1893 the town endured a cholera epidemic.

Before WW1 the Naishtot Jews had 4 brush manufacturing plants employing over 100 Jewish workers, 2 soft drink and beer factories, a silk spinning workshop with 40 workers and 60 apprentices. Jewish women worked at the cigarette factory in the neighboring German town of Schirwindt and made knitting products at home. Jews working in trades made a fine living. Among them there were 4 shoemakers, 3 tailors, 2 tinsmiths, 1 cooper, 1 locksmith, a few producers of carts and cabriolets and also roofing specialists and road pavers. Many worked in commerce. Big merchants among them traded on national and international levels as exporters and contractors. They exported grains, vegetables, fruit and poultry mainly to Germany. The proximity of the German border was an important factor in the life of Jewish shopkeepers. Germans would come to buy food products in Naishtot lured by cheaper prices. Bringing in different goods from Germany and selling them in Lithuania yielded an additional source of income for many Jews. A few dozen Jewish families in town were agrarians. In 1878 a Jewish school, subsidized by the government was open in town. These teachers established a library in 1879 where Russian and Hebrew books could be borrowed. The great Synagogue was built in 1880.

At the beginning of the eighteen eighties there were many plots organized against Jews, causing migration of Naishtot Jews to America and South-Africa. The Jewish population in town decreased to 1,600 in1914. At the beginning of WW1 Naishtot passed from one government to another several times . As a result more than a quarter of the houses in town were destroyed and for several years the town was left deserted in ruins. In the spring of 1915 it was occupied by the German army remaining in control of the area until the end of 1918.

In 1934 a memorial was erected in honor of the doctor and poet Vincas Kudirka who was born and burried in Naishtot. He was the author of the Lithuanian anthem. Since that time the town was called Kudirkos Naumiestis. This name was not subject to any changes during the Soviet rule 1940-1941. In the years 1941-1944 the town was under Nazi rule with all the atrocities and murders characteristic of the regime. During the struggle for liberation against the Nazis in 1944, a great part of the downtown core was destroyed.