Pabradė ( Podbrodz) is a city in eastern Lithuania, in Švenčionys district municipality, on Žeimena river, 38 km south-west of Švenčionys. Pabradė is a busy place as the Vilnius–Daugavpils railway is close to the city. Pabradė Training Area, a major military facility, is located near the town.

History

It was quite a small settlement until the 19th century, when the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway was built in 1862. In the interwar period, Podbrodzie, as it was known in Polish, was administratively located in the Święciany County in the Wilno Voivodeship of Poland. About 850 Jews lived in the town in 1939, comprising one third of the total population. After the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by the Soviets, who handed it over to Lithuania, to eventually re-occupy it in 1940. After June 1941, at the very beginning of the German occupation, about a dozen Jews were executed. In the middle of July, Lithuanian policemen arrested about 60 Jews and shot them behind the mill. On September 1, the rest of the Jewish population was moved into a ghetto that was established on two streets, previously inhabited by Christians. The ghetto was open, so many of its residents escaped at the end of the month, after rumors about the forthcoming Aktion had spread. Over 100 Jews who were interred in the ghetto or who were recaptured were escorted to the military training camp in Švenčionėliai and shot on October 8–10, along with thousands of other Jews assembled there. Policemen continued searching for Jewish escapees, gathered them in groups and shot them on the outskirts of town.

Population

In 2011, the city's population was composed of Poles - 44.73% (2681), Lithuanians – 26.81% (1607), Russians - 18.45% (1106), Belarusians - 5.27% (316), Ukrainians - 1.17% (70), others - 3.57% (214).