Mir is one of the ancient cities in Lithuania. Fierce battles were fought in Mir between Prince Witold(4) against the crusaders who supported his enemy Shvidrogialo(5). In the year 1395 the Crusaders invaded Mir, set it on fire and destroyed it completely. In the year 1434 the city was given, along with all its property, to Semyon Gedygoldovichu. the castellan of Vilna(6). He gave over the entire estate to his daughter Anna Botrimov(7). When she died in the year 1476, the city was passed on to her relative Yarzi Ilyinich?

During the years 1490-1568, Mir belonged to the Ilyinich family(8), who built a palace with a perfect fortress, organized the administration of the property and also expanded the boundaries of the estate, by acquiring new villages in the surrounding area.

After the death of Yuri Ilyinich, his son Shchastny (Felix Schastny) inherited the city. He married Sophia, the daughter of Jan Mikolaj Radziwill. Upon Shchastny death, Prince Ferdinand took upon himself the education of his son Yarzi Locher. Yarzi won the title "count of the Roman empire" (1555) for his excellence and distinction in the army.

Yarzi died childless and lonely (1568). All his belongings were inherited by Mikolaj Kryshtofu Radziwill who was known by the nickname "The Orphan".

From the year 1568 Mir belonged to the Radziwill family from Nesvizh. Mir was 4 miles away from the center of the Nesvizh estate and remained the property of the Radziwill family. Young Radziwill was sent for advanced study to the court of the Czar until 1813.

Footnotes

(1) Sefer Mir Edited by: N. Blumenthal. Published by the "Encyclopedia of the Diaspora" in Jerusalem, 1962

(2) Dr. N.M. Gelber (1891 - 1966) was a professional historian who wrote history chapters for several Yizkor books and was the editor of Memorial to the Jews of Drohobycz, Boryslaw and surroundings.

(3) Original translation by Sarah Lasry. Later translation by Rafi Rasin.

(4) Joanne Lafler discovered that Witold was his Polish name. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he was a Lithuanian national leader, b. 1350, d. 1430, named Vytautas the Great. Vytautas was a great warrior who broke up the power of the Teutonic knights – crusader knights. She found a Wikipedia article about him.

(5) Svitrigaila is the Lithuanian version of his name, according to information found by Joanne Lafler, who also discovered that further information on the early history of the Jews of Lithuania can be found on-line.

(8) From Wikipedia (automaticaly translated from Russian), we learn that Ilyinich (Ukrainian Ільїничі, Pol. Ilinicz, lit. Iljiničiai, bel. Іллінічы) was a Lithuanian noble family, known from the mid 15th century. In 1555, a descendent Yuri Ilyinich was granted the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire in Mir.

Ivashko Ilyinich - the first known representative of the family, in 1487-1489 GG governor of the Polish king Casimir of Bohemia in Smolensk (his position was received a reward for saving the life of the monarch in a battle). He was elevated to a knighthood with the award of a coat of arms.

Yuri Ilyinich (? - 1526) - Lithuanian marshal and governor of Lida. Settled in Mir after the death of his father in 1495. He was a soldier in Moldavia during the Polish-Turkish war. In the 1520s he began construction of the Mir Castle.

Nick - son, Yuri, died after his father.

Stanislav (1500 - 1531) - son of George. Dies after Nicholas, after a short reign. As rumored, the cause of death was poisoning.

Jadwiga - the only daughter of Yuri - did not reach her 30th birthday.

Jan (~ 1495 - 1536) - son of George. As a result of family deaths and the partition of inheritance, all posessions except in the Mir Castle, are disposed of.

Schastny (~ 1505 - 1542) - son Yuri, who has outlived all his brothers and skontsentirovavshy in their hands all the main family inheritance. Schastny married to Sophia Radziwill, who died before her husband. Schastny's son Yuri (~ 1535 - ~ 1569) is the last descendent of the Ilyinich family. His guardian is Nikolai Radziwill the Black (Grand Chancellor of Lithuania) in the service to the court of Ferdinand II. In 1555, Yuri gets the title of Count. On his deathbed, Yuri bequeathed all his possessions to Nicholas Kryshtofu Radziwill the son of his guardian. Thus all Ilyinich property, together with the title of Count of Mir passes to Radziwill.

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The History of the Jews of Mir Second page Please translate the second page and e-mail your translation to rkimble@uoregon.edu for inclusion on the Mir web site. (click on image to see enlarged version)

Notes

This translation is a group project, with help provided by people from Mir, descendents of people from Mir and friends of Mir who want to ensure that the history of this town will be preserved in English, in addition to the original Hebrew. Large image of the pages we are hoping to have translated can be found on-line at the blog of a friend of Mir. The entire Mir Yizkor book is available on line at the New York Public Library.

Captions from the Mir Yizkor book will be added to another page, as they are available.

Please send all translations or information relating to translations to Reeva Kimble

created October 2009