Pin made in the Soviet Union, Belarus. The text on the pin reads:”Slonim”. Slonim is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus, capital of the Slonimski rajon. It is located at the junction of the Ščara and Isa rivers, 143 km (89 mi) southeast of Hrodna. The population in 2015 was 49,739.
In 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union resulted in the invasion of Poland by the two powers and its division between them. Slonim was in the area designated by the Pact to fall within the Soviet sphere of influence. The Soviets placed that area within the Byelorussian SSR. Two years later, Germany invaded the Soviets (Operation Barbarossa) and Slonim was captured.
The Słonim Jews were herded into the Słonim Ghetto set up at the Na Wyspie neighbourhood across the bridge on the Szczara River. Soon thereafter, 70% of Slonim’s Jews had been killed by the Einsatzgruppen, including 9,000 on 14 November 1941. The second mass murder of 8,000 Jews took place in 1942.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Slonim became part of an independent state of Belarus.