Varėna

The name of the town comes from an old village - Senoji Varėna (at the time called simply Varėna), while the new, present Varėna was being established nearby. The place name itself comes from the name of the Varėnė River.^[4] In other languages, the town is referred to as: Polish: Orany;^[5] German: Warnen; Yiddish: אוראַן Oran.

Varėna was founded in 1862 as a railway town of the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway, 4 km (2.5 mi) south of Sena Varėna (Old Varėna). The exact date of the town's foundation is considered to be 5 September 1862 according to the Julian calendar, or 17 September according to the current Gregorian calendar: that's when the first train arrived at the Varėna station. At that time, it was a small settlement, but following steady development, it eventually became the center of the district.^[6] In the interwar period, after World War I, the town was in a territorial dispute between Lithuania and Poland.^[7] Following Zeligowski Mutiny, together with the Vilnius Region it was annexed by Poland under its Polish name Orany. It was located near the then Polish-Lithuanian border and incorporated into the Wilno and Troki County of the Wilno Voivodeship. The Lithuanian-majority residents of the town persistently opposed the Polish authorities, particularly in regard to the ban on church services in Lithuanian.^[6][7]

In 1939, following the German-Soviet Invasion of Poland, Varėna was briefly returned to Lithuania, but soon, from 1940, it was occupied by the Soviet Union, and from 1941 it was occupied by Nazi Germany. In 1941, the Germans operated the Dulag 112 prisoner-of-war camp in the town, before its relocation to Mołodeczno.^[8] On September 9, 1942, all the Jews of the town of Varėna were collected in the local synagogue. On that day, even though the Germans had tried to prevent him from doing so, the Lithuanian priest Jonas Gylys entered the synagogue and encouraged the Jews to be brave in their last hours rather than convert to Christianity.

On the following day (or, according to another source, on the 9th itself) all of the Jews were taken from the synagogue to Ežeriekai - a grove of trees near the village of Druckūnai, 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) from the town, on the side of the road leading to the village. Two large pits had been dug there 25 metres (82 feet) apart, one for the men and one for the women. Germans forced the victims in groups toward the pits and shot them there.

According to the report of Karl Jaeger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3A, 831 Jews from Varėna (and the surrounding areas) – 541 men, 149 women, and 141 children – were killed on that day.^[9]

In 1944, the town was re-occupied by the Soviet Union, eventually annexed from Poland in 1945 and once again returned to Lithuania. The town became a center of Varėna County (Varėnos apskritis). In 1946 around 2,000 Poles were repatriated to Poland.^[10]

In the aftermath of World War II, Lithuanian partisans of the Dainava military district were operating in the area. In 1946, Varėna was granted city rights. Following industrialization in the 1970s, the town grew rapidly. In 1995, the coat of arms of Varėna was formally adopted through a decree from the President of Lithuania.^[7]

Varėna is twinned with:

• Mikołajki, Poland