Figure 1.-- |
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Belarus is a country that was certainly affected by the Holocaust. It is, however, a difficult country to classify any account of the Holocust organized on a national basis. The country was until World War I a part of the Russian Empire with a mixed population pf Poles, Ukrainians, Lituanians, Jews, and others. After the War much of Belarus was acquired by the newly independent Polish nation and the Soviet Union trying to regain the territory of the old Soviet Union. At the onset of World War II, the NAZIs and the Soiviet Union cooperated in the invasion of Poland and partioned the country (September 1939). The Soviet sector was in large part modern Belarus. This meant the Holocaust evolved very differently in the two sectors of pre-War Poland. The NAZIs moved to concentrate Jews in their sector of occupied Poland where they later could be transported to the death camps. The Jews in the Soviet sector of occupied Poland were at first spared NAZI depridations, but were engulfed by the Holcaust with Barbarossa--the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). The NAZI as part of Barbarossa made only a limited attempt at creating gettos (mostly in the Baltics). Rather the basic approach ussing especially prepared Einzatgruppen was to kill Jews when and where they found them. This was done largely by mass shootings, in many cases at specially dug pits.
Belarus is a country that was certainly affected by the Holocaust. It is, however, a difficult country to classify any account of the Holocust organized on a national basis. The country was until World War I a part of the Russian Empire with a mixed population pf Poles, Ukrainians, Lituanians, Jews, and others.
Modern Belarus borders on Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. The history of Belarus Jews is intertwined with the history of Jews in those countries, especially because Belarus was never until the disolutuion of the Soiviet Union a separate state (1992). Jews may have been present in Belarus as early as the 13th century. At the time Belrus was contolled by Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This was a major European power at the time. Another source reports that the first evidence of Jewish settlement comes later, Brest-Litovsk with was part of Poland -Lithuania (1388). It was a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic commonwealth which permitted the development with laid the foundation for a unique Renaissance culture. Jews played an important role diverse culture tha developed in Lithuania and later Poland. Belorussia at the time was astride trade routes between Poland and Russia and Jewish merchants would have been ebvolved in that trade.
Jews were expelled in the late 15th century, but allowed back (1503). Actual Jewish settlement was difficult. Land ownership and involvement in many trades were resticted. Building synagogues was prohibited and without a snagogues a Jewish community could not function. Russian Orthodox devotees were especially hostile to Jews because of the Church's teachings. There were constant attacks on Jews. Some were forced to convet. Others were robbed or even killed. The population, however, slowly grew. One reports suggest as population of 62,800 (1766). Belorussia came under Russian control as part of the Polish Partitions (late 18th century). Some Jews under Russian control prospered, most lived in poverty. Jews generally were made a living as small-scale merchants are trades in which they were permitted to engage. Russia before the Polish Settlements had exckluded Jews. As a result of acquiring Polish lands, the Russians now had a substantial Polish population. The Tsaeist Govement established the OPale of Settlement (1791). Jews within the Russian Empire were required to live within the Pale. This was established in large measure to prevent Jews from competing with Russian merchants and artisans. In particularr they were excluded from Russian ethnic areas. The Pale included the western areas of the Russuan Empire, what is now Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belorussia. The Jews in the Pale generally eked out a meager existence, most living in poverty because if the many restrictions. Een so, the Jewish population increased. One estimae suggests a pipulation of over 725,000 (1897). Conditions within the pale and periodic pogroms caused many Jews to emigrate. Many went to Germany and other areas in Western Europe or to the Ukraine where conditions were soimewhat better for Jews. Others emigrated to America. Restrictions on Jewish land ownership meant that the Jewish population was primarily urban. Thus Jews represented a substantial portion of the population of the major cities (Minsk, Pinsk, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Vitebsk, and Gomel).
After the War much of Belarus was acquired by the newly independent Polish nation and the Soviet Union trying to regain the territory of the old Soviet Union.
At the onset of World War II, the NAZIs and the Soiviet Union cooperated in the invasion of Poland and partioned the country (September 1939). World War II began with the German invasion of Poland (1939). The Germans more than any other military, correctly assessed the lessons of World War II. The War in Europe began in 1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. The Panzers crossed the Polish frontier on September 1 along with a devestating strike by the Luftwaffe. The Polish Army and Air Force was shattered. Over 1 million German soldiers surged into Poland. Hitler emerged from the Reich Chancellery in a new grey uniform with his World War I Iron Cross. In a speech at the Reichstag before cheering NAZIs he declared, "I myself am today, and will be from now on, nothing but the soldier of the German Reich." Whithin 6 days Cracow, the center of Polish nationhood, fell. Pincer movements began on September 9 to encirle the major remaining Polish forces. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin ordered the Red Army to attack from the East. The Soviet invasion doomed Polabnd. German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk on September 18. Warsaw fell a few days later after a ruthless bombing assault. The Blitzkrieg tactics that were to prove so devestaing in the West during 1940 were all on display in 1939. Neither the British or French showed much attention, abscribing Polish defeat to military incompetance. The French had promissed the Poles an offensive in the West. It never came. [Fest, pp. 602-603.] The Soviet sector was in large part modern Belarus. This meant the Holocaust evolved very differently in the two sectors of pre-War Poland.
Poland had the largest Jewish popularion in Europe with the exception of the Soviet Union. It was in Poland that mass murder of the Jews began and was perfected. The death camps were located in Poland not Germany. And in Poland the Germans found many willing to help them and few Poles intersted in protecting the Jews. Einsatzgruppen began killing Polish Jews with the German invasion, but on a relativekly small scale. Most Polish Jew were forced into gettos. The NAZIs moved to concentrate Jews in their sector of occupied Poland where they later could be transported to the death camps. These ghettos were liuidated by the SS in 1942-43 following the Wannsee Conference: Lublin (March 1942); ghettos of Eastern and Western Poland (Spring 1942); and the Warsaw Ghetto (July-September 1942).
The Jews in the Soviet sector of occupied Poland were at first spared NAZI depridations. The Soviets moved into Easter Poland 2 weeks after the NAZIs struck in the West, dooming any possibility of effective Polish resistance. The Soviets were determined from the onset, like the NAZIs, to destoy Polish national existance. They targetted the Polish inteligencia as part of that effort. There were mass arrests and deportatioins. Large numbers of people were simply executed. The best known incident was the murder of the Polish officers in the Katyn Forrest. I do not have information at this time on how Jews fared under Soviet rule, but they were not targeted like the NAZIs did in western Poland.
The Battle of Britain in many ways changed the course of the War. An invasion of Britain was impossible without air superiority. Hitler, fearing a cross-Channel invasion, decided that the only way to force the British to seek terms was to destroy the Soviet Union. He began shifting the Wehrmacht eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, launching the most sweeping military campaign in history. It is estimated that on the eve of battle, 6.25 million men faced each other in the East. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the German preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitle would attack him. The attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground. The Germans captured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns seized the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But here the Soviets held. The Japanese decission to strike America, allowed the Sovierts to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Whermacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength. Hitler on December 11 declared war on America--the only country he ever formally declared war on. In an impassioned speech, he complained of a long list of violations of neutality and actual acts of war. [Domarus, pp. 1804-08.] The list was actually fairly accurate. His conclusion, however, that actual American entry into the War would make little difference proved to a diasterous miscalculation. The Germans who months before had faced only a battered, but unbowed Britain now was locked into mortal combat with the two most powerful nations of the world. The British now had the allies that made a German and Japanese victory virtually impossible. After the Russian offensive of December 1941 and apauling German losses--skeptics began to appear and were give the derisory term " Gröfaz ".
The Jew of eastern Europe were engulfed by the Holcaust with Barbarossa--the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). The NAZI as part of Barbarossa made only a limited attempt at creating gettos (mostly in the Baltics). Rather the basic approach ussing especially prepared Einzatzgruppen was to kill Jews when and where they found them. This was done largely by mass shootings, in many cases at specially dug pits.
We have only one personal account from Belarus, but it is perhaps the strangest of all the individual accounts we have found. It is about a little Jewish boy--Alex Kurzem. After the murder of his parents, he was adopted by a Latvian soldier and hiding the fact he was Jewish became a kind of NAZI mascot. He managed to survive the Holocaust and emigrated from Latvia to Australia in 1949.
Bryant, Nick. "The secret history of the Nazi mascot," BBC News (August 21, 2007).
Domarus, Max. Hitler Reden und Proklamationen 1932-45 Vo. 1-2 (Neustadt a.d. Aisch: Velagsdruckerei Schmidt, 1962-63).
Fest, Joachim C. Hitler (Vintage Books: New York, 1974), 844p.
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