For a long time the town was called Naumiestis (Lithuanian) or Nowe Miasto (Polish).

The town was allegedly created by the Grand Master of the German Order, Winrich von Kniprode.

Since 1795, the border between the Russian Empire and Prussia, which was located only three kilometres from the city, was increasingly fortified.

Moreover, the town gained significance after the ban on Lithuanian press (1863–1864), as an important route of the book smugglers led through it.

After the town was occupied by the Red Army in summer 1940 and its incorporation into the USSR, businesses were nationalized.

The German minority left the town in March 1941 on the basis of the German-Soviet resettlement agreement of 1941.

The parish priest, however, managed to convince the German officers of the innocence of the Jews, and they were freed.

[6] After the occupation, the Germans established an "advanced border-supervision post" of the Reich Financial Administration (Reichsfinanzverwaltung).

[8] In the time of Soviet Lithuania, a state domain and a professional school for agricultural education were located in Žemaičių Naumiestis.

[11] Since the middle of the 19th century there were Jews who mainly traded in closely located East Prussia and subsequently settled there.

[15] After the Wehrmacht occupied Žemaičių Naumiestis in June 1941, a local headquarters (Ortskommandantur) was established on the market square, where male Jews had to register every day.

In June 1941 already, the Jews were physically forced with kicks and blows to bring out the inventory of the synagogue including scrolls and banks into the yard and burn it there.

[12] On 19 July 1941, the SS of Heydekrug, under the direction of Werner Scheu, organized a second "Action to acquire Jews" (Judenbeschaffungsaktion).

[16] Its target was Žemaičių Naumiestis, 14 km east of Heydekrug, and thus one of the few towns in the northern border strip, where no killings of Jews had occurred so far.

[6] Some Jews from Žemaičių Naumiestis, who had survived the war in the Soviet Union and returned to their home in 1946, were killed when their houses were demolished.

[6] At the end of the 18th century, the nobleman Mykolas Rionikeris settled Protestant artisans from close by East Prussia in Žemaičių Naumiestis.

In 1958–1960, the community was again severely depleted as a result of emigration on the basis of the exit agreement between the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany.