uprising. The Russians also carried out deportations to Siberia, arrests and executions of local people. In 1870, Wizna was one of many Polish towns deprived of town rights by the Russian administration as punishment for the January Uprising. Following World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the settlement. In the interwar period the population numbers rose to over 3,300 partly due to influx of new Jewish immigrants from the neighboring states. The Jews in Wizna It is not clear when Jews started to settle in Wizna. Most of the Jewish population lived around the Rynek (Town Square) and the nearby streets. In 1765, 16 Jewish families (about 75 individuals) lived in Wizna. In 1857, there were 492 Jews out of a total population of 1,861; in 1921, they numbered 714 out of 2,670. Jews were mostly small merchants, craftsman and service providers. In the small village of Witkowo, on the Narew River adjacent to the north side of Wizna, a few Jewish families were farmers and fishermen. These included the Gostkowski family, which operated a ferry on the Narew River for over 100 years prior to the construction of the bridge on the road between Łomża and Bialystok. The gangster-turned-author Urke Nachalnik was born in Wizna to the wealthy and respected Farberowicz family, who were grain merchants and operated a flour mill. Urke Nachalnik’s books and stories were published in several languages by the Yiddish press in Poland and in the United States in the 1930s, with some of them being turned into stage plays. Emigration and Zionist activity in Wizna Zionist parties were active in Wizna during the 1920s and 1930s. A Hebrew school called Tarbut was opened, and the Zionist youth movements Hashomer Hatzair and Hachalutz were active among the young Jewish generation. Jews from Wizna emigrated to the US and other countries such as Cuba, Argentina and Australia during the Russian imperial rule in the 19th century and up until the onset of World War II. Groups of members of the Zionist youth movements emigrated to what was to become Israel before World War II and joined groups that founded the Kibutzim: Ramat-Hakovesh, Einat, Yagur, Giveat-Hashlosha, Kfar-Menachem, Ifat, Evron and Gvat. In addition former Wizners settled in Rishon-le-Zion, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kfar-Saba, Kfar-Sirkin, Kiryat-Chaim, Petach-Tikva, Ramat-Gan, Holon, Ganei-Hadar, Ramat-Zvi, Nahariya, Tel-Mond and elsewhere. World War II Wizna is known as the Polish Thermopylae.