The topic of the Holocaust is endless, as it brought so much sorrow; each tragic fate is a separate book. First and foremost, Belarus as a whole became a victim, where the Holocaust began and had terrible consequences. To understand the damage the Holocaust inflicted on Belarus, its citizens, and its culture, one must know about the Holocaust within it. While camps were still being built in Germany, mass extermination of Jews had already begun in Belarus in July 1941. The total number of Jews killed in Belarus amounted to 800,000. The development of genocide here was harsher and faster; only Jews who managed to escape from ghettos and hide in the forests survived. It is interesting how those who fled could survive in conditions where local residents were killed simply for helping Jews. It turns out that survival was mainly due to the efforts of partisans. Although some Belarusians still risked their lives to save Jews. It should be noted that from the beginning of the war, civilians were forbidden to join partisan detachments. Permission was granted only in 1943, by which time a huge number of Jews had already perished. The development of the partisan movement in Belarus began in 1941 (summer). But at first, only military personnel engaged in partisan activities. Only in spring 1943 (May), following an issued order, all able-bodied persons, including women, were allowed to join partisan detachments. However, at the same time, there was an order forbidding the acceptance of spies into detachments. During this turbulent time, even innocent people and children could be labeled as spies. In some cases, Jews were killed not only by Germans but also by partisans. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. By the end of August, German troops had fully occupied Belarusian territory, advancing so rapidly that only a negligible number of Jews managed to evacuate deeper into the Soviet Union. Several stages can be distinguished in the implementation of the Holocaust on Soviet territory: - June 22, 1941 (attack on the USSR) – January 1942 (Wannsee Conference) - February 1942 – Autumn 1943 (liquidation of ghettos and labor camps in German-occupied zones) - Winter 1943/1944 – Autumn 1944 (transfer of surviving Jews to concentration camps and complete liberation of occupied USSR territory). These periods are relevant to Belarus, which was liberated in July 1944. Belarus (its territory) was divided into several zones: - Rear area of Army Group "Center," including Vitebsk, Mogilev, a significant part of Gomel, eastern districts of Minsk, and several districts of the Polesie region. - General District "Belorussia" of the Reich Commissariat "Ostland" — about one-third of the BSSR, including part of the Vilnius region (Lithuania). - Partial inclusion in the Reich Commissariat "Ukraine" — Pinsk, Brest, and part of the Polesie regions. - Partial incorporation into the Third Reich — the entire Bialystok region and part of the Grodno region. Regarding the first zone, it can be said that military authorities operated there, persecuting and exterminating the Jewish population. In other zones, this grim task was entrusted to the civilian occupation administration. It has been noted that Wehrmacht soldiers were most active precisely in Belarus. In many places in Belarus where Jews lived, the Germans began exterminating them immediately upon arrival. Already in summer 1941 (June 27), 2,000 Jews were killed by German executioners in what was then Belarusian Bialystok. A few days later, several thousand more were killed. From August 5 to 7, the Germans killed 10,000 Jews in Pinsk. On July 10, in Brest-Litovsk, the Nazis shot 5,000 to 10,000 Jewish citizens (figures vary in different sources). On October 30, Wehrmacht soldiers shot four and a half thousand Jews from the Nesvizh ghetto. By the onset of winter, up to 50,000 Jewish people had been exterminated. In the first months of Hitler’s occupation, Jews in cities such as Vitebsk, Gomel, Bobruisk, and Mogilev were exterminated. On October 8, the Vitebsk ghetto was liquidated, with 16,000 people killed. At the end of 1941 (December 8), 4,500 Jews in Novogrudok were exterminated, accounting for 64.3% of the entire Jewish population in this small town. In Belarus, in January 1942 alone, Einsatzgruppen shot 33,210 Jews. In the Nazi-occupied Belarusian territory controlled by the civilian administration, by the end of January, 139,000 Jewish citizens remained alive. The Nuremberg racial laws, aimed at isolating Jews, were enforced in the occupied territories. In 1943 (summer and autumn), the Nazis began actions to liquidate ghettos in Western Belarus. Jews from settlements such as Kossovo, Mir, Kletsk, Lyakhovichi, Nesvizh, and others were exterminated. By March 12, 1943, the Jewish population of Grodno, which numbered over 25,000, was completely destroyed. October 21, 1943, marked the time of the last pogrom in the Minsk ghetto. All its inhabitants were doomed to extermination. On December 17, the Baranovichi ghetto was liquidated; the Germans killed 3,000 people, and the survivors were transferred to concentration camps. During the war years, a total of 700,000 to 898,000 Jewish citizens died in Belarus (according to varying estimates). In addition, the Nazis exterminated 85,000 to 90,000 Jews from other countries on the territory of the republic. One of Belarus’s leading specialists in war history, Doctor of Historical Sciences Emmanuil Ioffe, suggested that as of June 22, 1941 (at which time the Bialystok region was part of Belarus), 946,000 Jewish citizens died during the war years. Of these, 898,000 perished due to the Holocaust, and 48,000 died in battles.

Jermaine