The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Minsk Ghetto


Figure 1.-- Here Jews are forced into the Minsk Ghetto (July 1941). These seem tio be Minsk residents, but soon Jews from surrounding towns and villages were driven into the ghetto.

Jews were reported in Minsk (15th century). The city was at times both Polish and Lithuanian. Tsarist Russia seized the area as part of the Polish partitions (18th century). After the Polish-Soviet War, Minsk became a part of the Soviet Uniion (1921). The city had a large, important Jewish communities in the Tsarist Empire. Soviet aurthirities reported a Jewish population of 53,700, or 41 percent bof the city. [1926 Census] After the outbreak of World War II (September 1939), the population of Jews increased as Polish Jews fled their NAZI occupied homeland. The NAZI invaded the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) and within days reached Minsk (June 28). Within hours the German authorities assembled 40,000 men and boys (15-45 years of age) for registration. They included Jews, Red Army POWs, and non-Jewish civilians. They were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire, floodlights, and machine guns. Then the German authorities ordered Jewish intelectusals to identify themselves (July 1). Most did expectging some preferential assignment. The 2,000 men who did were msrched into a nearby forest and shot. Another 100 Jews were shot (July 8). Some killings became almost daily events. The Germans formed a Judenrat by selecting ten men almost at random. Eliyahu Myshkin, the former vice-director of the Ministry of Commercial Trade, was selected tobhead the council. Its first assignment was to register the Jewish population of Minsk. They completed the registration (July 15). The Germans ordered the Jews to wear a yellow badge on their chest and back, as well as a white patch on their chest identifying their house number. The Germans formally established the Minsk Ghetto (July 20, 1941.) The SS took 13,000 Jews out of the Minsk ghetto k (modern Belarus) and ordered them to lie down in freshly dug trenches so they could be shot. This was before the death camps were operational in occupied Poland. The killing was to make space for the first deportations of Reich Jews to the East (November 14, 1941).

Minsk Jewish History

Jews were reported in Minsk (15th century). The city was at times both Polish and Lithuanian. Tsarist Russia seized the area as part of the Polish partitions (18th century). The city had a large, important Jewish communities in the Tsarist Empire. After the Polish-Soviet War, Minsk became a part of the Soviet Uniion (1921). Minsk became the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Minsk was located in the extreme west of the new Soviet Union, close to the Polish border. Today Minsk is located in Belarus. Soviet aurthorities reported a Jewish population of 53,700, or 41 percent bof the city. [1926 Census]

World War II (September 1939)

After the outbreak of World War II (September 1939), the NAZIs seized western and cebtral Poland while the Siovietrs seuzeed eastern Polznd. The Jewish population in Minsk increased as Polish Jews fled east from their NAZI-occupied homeland.

Barbarossa (June 1941)

The NAZI invaded the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) and within days the Panzers reached Minsk (June 28). Within hours the German authorities assembled 40,000 men and boys (15-45 years of age) for registration. They included Jews, Red Army POWs, and non-Jewish civilians. They were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire, floodlights, and machine guns. Then the German authorities ordered Jewish intelectusals to identify themselves (July 1). Most did expectging some preferential assignment. The 2,000 men who did were marched into a nearby forest and shot. Another 100 Jews were shot (July 8). Killings became almost daily events.

German Occupation Administration: Ostland

The former Soviet Belorussian SSR during the German occupation became part of the Reich Commissariat Ostland (Reichskommissariat Ostland). Minsk became a district capital. Wilhelm Kube, the German general commissioner of Belorussia, esta\blished his headquaters in Minsk.

Judenrat

The Germans formed a Judenrat by selecting ten men almost at random. Eliyahu Myshkin, the former vice-director of the Ministry of Commercial Trade, was selected to head the council. Its first assignment was to register the entire Jewish population of Minsk. They completed the registration (July 15).

Badges

The Germans ordered the Jews to wear a yellow badge on their chest and back, as well as a white patch on their chest identifying their house number.

Minsk Ghetto (July 1941)

By the time of Barbarossa, the Germans had firmly established the ghettoization policy pursued in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. And they had perfected the best way of establishing and controlling ghettos. German authorities formally established the Minsk Ghetto (July 20, 1941.) The Minsk Jews identified by the registration policy and badges were forced into the ghetto. The Germns than began bringing Jews from nearby towns and villages like Slutzk, Dzerzhinsk (Koidanovo), and Cherven. The ghetto was set up in the northwestern part of the city. The Ghetto was created around 34 streets and lanes (Perekopskaia, Kolkhoznaia, Nemiga, Shornaia, Kollektornaia, Respublikanskaia, Obuvnaia and Zaslavskaia Streets and Kolkhoznyi, Mebel'nyi and Vtoroi Opanskii lanes, as well as Yubileiny Square and the Jewish cemetery. Jewish men and women who had married non-Jews were also forced into the Ghetto, as were their children. I believe their non-Jewish spouces were given the choice of accompanying them or not, but do not have confirmation of this. The population of the ghetto eventually reached 80,000 to 100,000 people. The Germans gradually hardened the Ghetto, It was surrounded by rows of barbed wire. Watchtowers manned by armed guards were built and 24 hour surveillance was instituted. A living space of a mere 1.5 square meters was allotted to each adult and none for the children. Thousands of people were jammed together in ruins of many destroyed or largely gutted houses. In many cases there were no floors or windows. A curfew was enforce from 10 pm. to 5 am. As aesult of the abysimal living conditions and resulting poor sanitation as well as lack of food and medicine, disease became a serious problem. Food was provided below the minimum needed for minimal subsistence.

Resistance (August 1941)

Soon after the Ghetto was established, Jews began organizing an underground resistance (August 1941). They helped organoze escapes. The escapees formed partisan units in the forests to the southeast and northwest of the city. Jews from the Minsk Ghetto formed seven different partisan units. About 10,000 Jews managed to escape from the Ghetto. Most of them were eventually killed by German units in anti-partisan sweeps.

Reich Jews (November 1941)

The Germans began deporting Reich Jews to Minsk (November 1941). More than 20,000 Jews from Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were deported to Minsk (through October 1942). There fate varied. Some were shot or gassed on arrival. The killing took place at Maly Trostinets, a killing facility set up at the small village of Trostenetsabout 8 miles east of Minsk. Maly Trostenets was the most deadly death camp established in Belorussia. The victims included Soviet civilasbs, POWs, Soviets Jews as well as Jews from Poland, Austria, Germany and Chekoslovakia. The killing included both shooting and gassing in esspecially designed gas vans. (The vans originated in German T4 euthenesia campaigns before the War.) Some of the Reich Jews were assigned to a separate ghetto in Minsk. They were kept sepsrate from the Soviet Jews. It was essentially two sepatate, but adjacent ghettos.

Slave Labor

Adult men and teenagers had to register for labor service, essentially slave labor. A labor camp was established on Shirokaya Street. Soviet POWs accused of a range of offences were also bsent here. Eventially this camp became a transit camp for those selected for killing. Jews worked in factories inside the two Ghettos. estanlished at Minsk. Jews also had to perform forced labor outside the Ghettos, especially in the Shiroka Street labor camp and the Minsk Opera House. There was no opera after the Germans seized the city. Slavs were not seen capable of high culture. The Opera Houuse was converted into a sorting facility where confiscated Jewish property was sorted and stored.

Attrocities

As if the Ghetto itself was not bad enogh, the Germans perodically carried out attrocities. Early in the ghetto history, 45 Jews were roped together. A group of 30 Russian POWs were ordered to bury them alive, When they refused, the Germans shot all 75 men (July 21, 1941). The SS took 13,000 Jews out of the Minsk Ghetto and ordered them to lie down in freshly dug trenches so they could be shot. This was before the death camps were operatiional in occupied Poland. The killing was to make space for the first deportations of Reich Jews to the East (November 14, 1941).

Liquidation (Fall 1943)

The Germans liquidated the Minsk Ghetto (fall 1943). Most were killed at the Sobibor death camp. The last 4,000 Jews from Minsk were killed at Maly Trostinets.

Liberation (July 1944)

The retreating Germans killed 6,500 prisoners and attempted to burn them in a barn at the (June 1944). This occurred just before the Red Army liberated Minsk. They were prisoners from a prison on Volodarskaia street and a labor camp on Shirokaia street in Minsk. The iberation was pasrt of Red Army Bagration Offensive (July 1944). The Soviets coordinated Bazgration with the Allied D-Day landings so the Germans could not transfer forces west. Bagration resulkted in the destruction of the Germnan Arnmy Groupo bCenter, the most powerful Whermachy formation.






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Created: 5:21 AM 6/16/2010
Last updated: 8:24 AM 4/29/2011