where several Jews were forced to lie down on a spread Torah Scroll and were subsequently shot. On May 10, 1942, the Jews of Valozhyn were blamed for the killing of three Germans by Belarusian partisans several days earlier. At 5 a.m., the ghetto was cordoned by Belarus and Polish police along with the SS. They entered the ghetto, killed the two Jewish policemen at the gate, and then began shooting and gathering the Jews into a large blacksmith shop, where they set a table with drinks surrounded by machine guns. While drinking and singing they shot into the building "to silence the crying". Inside the building, an argument ensued where some called to die while resisting, but the leading rabbi called on the people to keep up hopes till the last minute. The head of the police then called over a member of the Judenrat to polish his boots. When the man bent down, the policeman shot him in the head. This caused the Jews in the building who were able to watch this, to escape while scrambling to the roof and jumping off. Most were shot, but about 12 people escaped. The rest were held in the building till 5 p.m., and were then marched off to the forest in groups of children, women, elderly men and the rest, many in their prayer shawls and phylacteries from the morning prayers. They were marched through the Christian quarter, where they were met by dancing young men and women, singing, playing music and mocking the marched. The people were taken to a house ("the Bulowa house") near the cemetery, and shot. The house was then set on fire. A short while afterward the remaining Jews of Valozhyn were taken to the graveyard, forced to dig a large pit and were then buried alive by tractors and tanks who drove over them. On 5 July 1944, Valozhyn was recaptured by troops of the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front during the Vilnius Offensive. Following its liberation, several Jews who returned openly to Valozhyn were murdered by local townspeople. A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states, translated as "district" in English. It was initially raion centre in Navahrudak Voblast (1939), later in Baranavichy Voblast (1939–1944) and Molodechno Voblast (1944–1960) before passing to Minsk Region. Demography Notable natives or long-term residents Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, founder and head of the