| Pińsk Ghetto | |
|---|---|
| Nazi ghetto | |
 Memorial at the site of the mass murder of Jews in the Pińsk ghetto during the Holocaust | |
  Location of Pińsk Ghetto in modern day Belarus | |
 Interactive map of Pińsk Ghetto | |
| Coordinates | 52°07′N26°6′E / 52.117°N 26.100°E /52.117; 26.100 |
| Known for | The Holocaust in Poland |
| Location | Pińsk,German-occupied Poland |
| Operated by | SS |
| Operational | 1 May 1942 – 29 Oct 1942 |
ThePińsk Ghetto (Polish:Getto w Pińsku;Belarusian:Пінскае гета) was aNazi ghetto created byNazi Germany for the confinement ofJews living in the city ofPińsk,Western Belarus,German-occupied Poland. Pińsk, located ineastern Poland, wasoccupied by the Red Army in 1939 and incorporated into theByelorussian SSR. The city was captured by theWehrmacht inOperation Barbarossa in July 1941; it was incorporated into the GermanReichskommissariat Ukraine in autumn of 1941.
In the 5–7 August 1941 massacre, 8,000 Jews were murdered just outside of Pińsk.[1][2] The subsequentcreation of the ghetto was followed – over a year later – by the murder of the imprisoned Jewish population of Pińsk, totalling 26,000 victims: men, women and children. Most killings took place between 29 October and 1 November 1942 byPolice Battalion 306 of the GermanOrder Police, and other units.[3] It was the second largest mass shooting operation in a single settlement to that particular date duringthe Holocaust,[note 1] afterBabi Yar where the death toll exceeded 33,000 Jews. The Babi Yar shootings were surpassed only by the NaziAktion Erntefest of 3 November 1943 in theLublin district with 42,000–43,000 Jews murdered at once over execution pits,[5][6] dug specifically for this purpose.[7]
Polandgained independence at the end ofWorld War I.[8] In the April 1919Pinsk massacre, during thePolish–Soviet War, the Polish garrison summarily executed 35 Jewish men without due process on the suspicion of plotting apro-Soviet counterattack.[citation needed]
In the subsequent decade the city grew to 23,497 inhabitants as part of thePolesie Voivodeship in theSecond Polish Republic.[8] It was briefly declared the capital of the province in 1921 but a citywide fire resulted in the transfer of power toBrześć within months.[8] Jews constituted over half the number of Pińsk residents, and 17.7% of the general population in the region. New Jewish schools were opened, as well as a clinic, a bank, an old-age home, and an orphanage.[9]
In 1939, following theSoviet invasion of Poland in accordance with theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Pińsk and the surrounding territories were taken over by the Soviet Union. TheNKVD secret police conducted raids and shut down all synagogues and shops. Mass deportations toSiberia followed.[10] At that time, the population became over 90% Jewish due to the influx of refugees from German-controlledwestern Poland.[10] Thearea was annexed into theSoviet Byelorussian Republic after theElections to the People's Assemblies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus conducted in an atmosphere of terror.[11]
On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa. Advance forces of theWehrmacht entered Pinsk on 4 July 1941. Christian inhabitants welcomed the German army as liberators from the Soviet regime, greeting them with bread and flowers.[citation needed] Under newanti-semitic regulations, Jews were forbidden to leave the city or shop in the market and were required to wear armbands with theStar of David. Random killings, beatings, looting, requisitions, and abduction of Jews forforced labour took place.[12]
AJudenrat (Jewish Council) was formed on 30 July 1941. On the night of 4 August, 300 Jews were detained in order to compel the council to assemble Jews between the ages of 16 and 60, ostensibly for a labour detail. Thousands of men were marched out of the town and shot in prepared trenches. In the next two days, the Germans rounded up additional Jews, including younger boys and some women, who were also shot. By 8 August 1941, 8,000 Jews were murdered in this manner.[1]
The ghetto in Pińsk existed only for half a year, officially between 20 April and 29 October 1942,[13] much shorter than mostJewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland.[9] The relocation action took place on 1 May 1942. Food was rationed, and abarbed-wire fence erected. The following month, in June 1942, the first murder operation took place there, with 3,500 Jews rounded up in Pińsk and nearbyKobryń, and transported toBronna Góra (the Bronna Mount) to be shot.[9] This was the location of secluded massacres of Jews transported byHolocaust trains from theBrześć Ghetto as well.[9]
The Pińsk Ghetto's population swelled, with Jews deported en masse from all neighbouring settlements until food ran out. The liquidation of the ghetto began on 28 October 1942. The German motorized battalion met armed resistance from underground fighters,[9] which came as a complete shock to theGerman police. The insurgents were shooting from secretly set-up bunkers, so reinforcements were brought in to continue the ghetto liquidation. According to the Nazi-issued final report, 17,000 Jews were killed during the insurgency, bringing the total to 26,200 victims before the ghetto's closure.[14] Ten thousand were murdered in one day and the rest on the next day, with few managing to escape into the forest.[4] The ghetto ceased to exist entirely. Not a single house was burned down.[14]
After the war, Poland'sborders were redrawn and Pinsk became part of the Soviet Union. Some of the Jews who survived the Holocaust returned, but they were prohibited from reopening a synagogue. In the 1970s and 1980s, most of them emigrated.[9] Pinsk became part of independent Belarus in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By 1999, only 317 Jews lived in the city.[9]
Final Solution culminated in the great "harvest festival" (Erntefest) massacre, the single largest German killing operation against Jews in the entire war. With a victim total of 42,000 Jews in the Lublin district, Erntefest surpassed even the notorious Babi Yar massacre of more than 33,000 Jews.[page 162 of current document].
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