On 19.05.1942 a squad of Soviet partisans set up an ambush on the Swieciany-Lyntupy road on a passenger car driven by 3 Germans and a translator, E. Rakowska, a resident of Swieciany. The Germans were killed. They were Jozef Beck and Walter Gruhl, who were on a business trip. A few hours after the assassination attempt, the local Lithuanian police forces started a pogrom against Poles in Stare Święciany. In the first moment, around 200 people, mostly from the Polish intelligentsia and respected bourgeoisie, were killed in their flats and in the streets. More detainees were placed in prison on Dworcowa Street, and the next morning (20.05.1942) they were escorted along Vilnius and Hoduciska Streets to the Jewish cemetery, where a mass murder was carried out. The perpetrators of this crime were the "Ponar shooters", the Lithuanian police and Lithuanian civilian volunteers, including students of the Lithuanian gymnasium from Swieciany. Retaliatory action against Poles also took place in the surrounding villages and even in relatively remote areas. A total of 1,200 Poles were shot. The entire reprisal action was led by the Lithuanian police major Jonas Maciulaviczius. The corpses of the murdered were later thrown into a deep ditch dug at the scene of the crime by Soviet prisoners of war and buried. Efforts to exhume the remains of the murdered Poles were made by the families of the victims with the Soviet authorities. The transfer of the remains to the Catholic cemetery took place in 1944. At first, the bodies of 9 people murdered on the Swieciany - Lyntupy road were moved and buried in a corner of the Catholic cemetery, near the side entrance. Unfortunately, this grave was later obliterated and could not be found today. The exhumation from the Jewish cemetery took place on 24.09.1944. The funeral service was held in the All Saints' Church. The Lithuanians did not attend the ceremony probably so as not to provoke aggression from the Poles. There were no speeches during the funeral either in the church or in the cemetery. At the same time, a group of Gypsies, also murdered by Lithuanian police, were also buried. They were buried in one grave together with the Poles. A monument was erected on the grave. Initially, the names of the Poles were written on it in Lithuanian, and there was no inscription in Polish. Many years later, thanks to the efforts of the Švenčionys District Branch of the Union of Poles in Lithuania, a cross was placed on the grave, and under the plaque in Lithuanian, a second plaque was placed with a Polish text that reads: "Here rest the bodies of the innocently murdered inhabitants of the city of Sviatoslav on 20 May 1942". Ca. 2012 r. The Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom funded new plaques with the names of the victims - each name is written in Lithuanian and Polish. The nameplates commemorate only 23 people - this is probably how many victims were identified during the exhumation.