Marcinkonys is a village in Varėna district, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, located south-east of Merkinė

Merkine

Merkinė is a town in Dzūkija National Park in Lithuania, located at the confluence of the Merkys and Neman Rivers.First mentioned in 1359, Merkinė is one of the oldest Lithuanian settlements. It received the Magdeburg rights in 1569. The town is the location of The Mount of Queen Bona, a mound...

. It is the administrative center of the Dzūkija National Park

Dzukija National Park

Dzūkija National Park - a national park in Dzūkija, Lithuania, was established in 1991 in order to preserve the pine forests, the landscape, and the villages of the region. The area encompasses approximately 550 square kilometers on the banks of the Nemunas River.The park is the largest protected...

 and Čepkeliai Marsh

Cepkeliai Marsh

Čepkeliai marsh is the largest swamp in Lithuania, in the territory of Dzūkija National Park. Located south of Marcinkonys village, near the Lithuanian-Belarusian. The area of the swamp is protected as a natural reserve....

. According to the 2001 census, it had 765 residents. The settlement is known since 1637, when it was a camp of foresters. It began growing after completion of the train station for the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway

Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway

The Saint Petersburg – Warsaw Railway, Russian "Санкт-Петербурго-Варшавская железная дорога" is a long railway, built in the 19th century by the Russian Empire to connect Russia with Central Europe. At the time the entire railway was within Russia, as Warsaw was under a Russian partition of Poland...

 in 1864. During the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

, the village had the Marcinkonys Ghetto for the Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...

. Some Jews escaped during the liquidation of the ghetto and managed to survive the war.