Dzyatlava

Zietela was first referenced in documents from 1498 when it was granted by the King of Poland John I Albert to Prince Konstanty Ostrogski, who later built a wooden castle there.

In the 17th century, Zietela was owned by Lew Sapieha, who ordered a Catholic church to be erected on the main city square. The church was consecrated in 1646, renovated after a fire in 1743 and still stands.[3]

During the Great Northern War of the anti-Swedish alliance, Peter I of Russia visited Zietela and stayed there for a week in January 1708. In the 18th century, the town was owned by Stanisław Sołtyk, who built a Baroque residence there in 1751. After the partitions of Poland, until the aftermath of World War I, the town was within the Russian Empire, in the Grodno Governorate, district of Slonim.[4]

Market square in Zdzięcioł, 1938, before the Soviet invasion of Poland

Between World War I and World War II, Zdzięcioł (now Dzyatlava) belonged to the Second Polish Republic. It was the seat of Gmina Zdzięcioł in Nowogródek Voivodeship.[5] The population was composed predominantly of Polish Jews. The Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, and stationed in the Voivodeship area until the outbreak of their own war with Germany in June 1941. After the Soviet rapid retreat, and several months of Nazi ad hoc persecution, on February 22, 1942 the new German authorities officially created Zdzięcioł Ghetto.[6][7]

During the Holocaust, about 3,000–5,000 Jews were killed near the town during the Dzyatlava massacre of 1942 by a German death squad aided by the Lithuanian and the Belarusian Auxiliary Police battalions.[8] The old Jewish cemetery is considered a minor landmark.