Minsk ghetto is a terrible page of the bloodiest war in history. Wehrmacht troops occupied the Belarusian capital on June 28, 1941. Three weeks later, the Nazis created a ghetto, which later contained one hundred thousand prisoners. Just over half survived.
What is a ghetto
This is the Italian word for "new foundry". The term appeared in the 16th century, when a special area for Jews was organized in Venice. Ghetto nuovo is a special settlement for people who are discriminated against on religious, racial or national grounds. But in the 20th century, it was possible to answer the question differently: "What is a ghetto?" The Second World War turned the word into a synonym for the death camp. The Nazis created isolated Jewish quarters in many occupied cities. The largest were Warsaw, Terezin, Minsk. The ghetto on the map of Minsk is shown below.
Occupation of the Belarusian capital
Three days after the Germans captured the city, they forced all the Jews to hand over their money and jewelry. Created at the end of JuneJudenrat. Ilya Mushkin was elected chairman of this organization - he spoke German fluently. Before the war, this man owned one of the local trusts.
On July 19, as part of the program to exterminate Jews, the occupiers organized the Minsk ghetto. Announcements were distributed in the city listing the streets included in its composition. The Jews had to move there within five days. Future prisoners did not yet know that few would survive in the Minsk ghetto.
Management
The Judenrat did not have any administrative rights. At first, Mushkin was responsible for collecting contributions from the Jewish population, as well as for registering houses in the ghetto and each of its inhabitants. The power here belonged to the chairman of the German command. The invaders appointed a certain Gorodetsky, a native of Leningrad, who was of German origin, to this position. This man, according to eyewitnesses of those terrible days, showed a pathological tendency to sadism.
The Jews had to move to the ghetto, according to the order of the German command, within five days. But this proved difficult to implement. Several tens of thousands of Jews lived in the city. In addition, before they were resettled, the inhabitants of the streets that were part of the Minsk ghetto had to vacate their homes. All this took about ten days. By August 1, 80 thousand people were kept in the Minsk ghetto.
Conditions
The ghetto was located in the area of the Lower Market and the Jewish cemetery. Covered 39 streets. The entire area was fencedwire. Among the guards there were not only Germans, but also Belarusians and Lithuanians. The rules here were the same as in the Warsaw ghetto. The prisoner had no right to go outside without an identification mark - a five-pointed yellow star. Otherwise, he could have been shot on the spot. However, the yellow star did not save from death. Both the Germans and the police from the first days of the creation of the Minsk ghetto robbed and killed Jews with complete impunity.
The life of the Jews was surrounded by many prohibitions. A prisoner of the ghetto had no right to move along the sidewalk, visit public places, heat a dwelling, exchange things for food from a representative of another nationality, or wear furs. When meeting with a German, he had to take off his hat, and at a distance of at least fifteen meters.
Many bans were related to food. At first, Jews were still allowed to exchange things for flour. Soon this was also banned. As a rule, products entered the territory of the ghetto illegally. The one who made the exchange risked his life. Inside the Minsk ghetto, there was a so-called black market, in which some Germans also took part. The population density here was extremely high. Up to a hundred people could live in a one-story house, which consisted of three apartments.
Hunger, unbearable crowding, unsanitary conditions, cold - all this created favorable conditions for the development of various diseases. In 1941, the German command allowed the opening of a hospital and even an orphanage. They were destroyed in 1943.
Mass shootings of 1941
The first pogrom took place in August. Then about five thousand Jews were killed. The Germans called the massacres of ghetto prisoners the neutral word "action". The second such "action" was held on November 7.
In autumn, the Nazis killed from six to fifteen thousand Jews. They carried out this operation with the active assistance of the Lithuanian policemen, who, having cordoned off the area, gathered women and children, and then carried out a mass execution. Regarding this event, researchers do not give exact numbers. According to various estimates, five to ten thousand people were killed. After the second pogrom, the territory of the ghetto was significantly reduced.
In the first months after the creation of the Minsk ghetto, the Germans killed the disabled. Later, large-scale pogroms began, during which the Nazis and police killed everyone indiscriminately.
March pogrom
In the spring of 1942, the Nazis used gas chambers. What it is? This device was also called a gas car. A machine with a built-in gas chamber. The total number of victims who ended up in such a death car is unknown. In Minsk, the Germans used gas chambers to kill children. Sometimes such cars were made several times a day.
In 1942, pogroms became almost a common occurrence in the Minsk ghetto. They were performed at any time: both day and night. But at first, more often when the able-bodied part of the ghetto population was at work. One of the mass executions was carried out by the Nazis on the territory ofPutchinskiy village council.
More than three thousand Jews were taken out of the ghetto and killed on the western outskirts of Minsk. Then the Germans gathered about five thousand people. On March 2, the Nazis took to the outskirts of the city, according to various estimates, from two hundred to three hundred children. They shot, the bodies were thrown into a quarry. At this place today there is a memorial dedicated to the victims of fascism. The monument is called "The Pit".
At the end of July 1942, the Germans staged a pogrom in which about thirty thousand people died. In December of the same year, all the patients, including children, were shot. In early April 1942, there were about 20,000 able-bodied Jews in the ghetto. Six months later, that number has halved. Until 1943, at least forty thousand more Jews died.
Wilhelm Kube
During the occupation, the commissar general gained fame as one of the most cruel executioners. Among the German officers, he was known as a squabbler and schemer.
Kube became famous not only for his cruelty, but also for his cynicism: he treated children doomed to death a few minutes before their death with sweets. However, some researchers argue that Kube was against the mass execution of ghetto prisoners. But not because he felt compassion for them. To destroy able-bodied Jews, in his opinion, was unprofitable from an economic point of view. When Germans were brought into the ghetto, Cuba was furious. Among the German Jews there were many participants in the First World War. Still, the Gauleiter was a small fry in the fascist system. He had no right to challenge the decisionshigher officials.
Wilhelm Kube was eliminated by Soviet partisans in September 1943. Elena Mazanik, who worked as a maid for the Gauleiter, was associated with an underground organization. She placed a clock mechanism under his mattress.
Ellen Mazanik
This woman was known to both Soviet partisans and SS men under the name of Galina. After the fall of Minsk, she got a job in a German military unit, then worked for a while in a kitchen factory. In June 1941, Elena was hired by Wilhelm Kube in a mansion located at 27 Teatralnaya Street. Here the Gauleiter lived with his family.
By that time, Soviet partisans were already hunting for Cuba. Several operations to eliminate the Commissar General failed. Elena had previously met with members of the underground organization, but she agreed to take part in the liquidation of Cuba only on the condition that the partisans would help her family members get out of occupied Minsk. This condition was not met. Mazanik refused.
What ultimately affected the woman, because it was she who planted the bomb in the Gauleiter's bed on September 21, 1943, is unknown. Mina worked on the night of September 22. The pregnant wife of Cuba was in the house at that moment in the house, but was not injured. Elena Mazanik was taken out of Minsk, she had to face many hours of interrogation, in which the head of the NKVD, Vsevolod Merkulov, took part. In 1943, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
It is known that Himmler, having learned about the death of Cuba, said: "This is happiness for the fatherland." However, mourning was declared in Germany. Cuba was posthumously awarded the Military Merit Cross. Kube's wife dedicated a book of memoirs to her husband.
Three hundred prisoners were shot in the Minsk ghetto after the murder of the Gauleiter. Kurt von Gottberg was appointed to the vacant position.
Hamburg Prisoners
The Minsk ghetto contained not only Belarusian Jews, but also German ones. In September 1941, the deportation of Jews from Germany began. About nine hundred people were brought to Belarus. Of these, only five survived. For German Jews, a separate zone was allocated, which was called the Sonderghetto. It also contained prisoners from the Czech Republic, Austria and other countries of Western Europe. But since the majority were from Hamburg, they were called "Hamburg Jews." They were strictly forbidden to communicate with the inhabitants of another part of the ghetto.
German prisoners were in worse conditions than Belarusian ones. They experienced catastrophic food shortages. Despite everything, they kept their territory clean and even celebrated the Sabbath. These prisoners were shot in Koidanovo and Trostenets.
Hirsch Smolyar
From SS documents about the Minsk ghetto after the war, Soviet and foreign researchers obtained data on the number of dead. But even scrupulous Germans did not give exact figures. More complete information was obtained thanks to the memoirs of the prisoners of the Minsk ghetto. Hirsh Smolyar not only survived the Holocaust, but also spoke about what happened in the period 1941-1943 in the Belarusian capital.
In August 1942, he ended up in the Minsk ghetto. Chronicle of the events of thoseyears is reflected in his autobiographical book. In 1942, Smolyar led an underground organization. He managed to escape from the ghetto. Having joined the partisan detachment, Smolyar took part in the publication of underground newspapers in Russian and Yiddish. In 1946 he left for Poland as a repatriate. Smolyar's book is called "Avengers of the Minsk Ghetto". The chronicle of events is set out in this journalistic work very carefully. The first chapter is called "The Way Back". The author tells in it about the first days of August, about the resettlement in the Minsk ghetto. The photo below shows a column of prisoners on the streets of the Belarusian capital in 1941.
Underground organizations
Already in the fall of 1941, there were more than twenty such groups in the territory of the Minsk ghetto. A photo of one of the leaders of the underground organizations is presented below. This man's name was Isai Kazints. Other leaders of the resistance movement are Mikhail Gebelev and the aforementioned Hirsh Smolyar.
Underground groups united more than three hundred people. They committed acts of sabotage at the railway junction and German enterprises. Members of the underground movement took about five thousand prisoners out of the ghetto. These organizations also collected weapons, medicines needed for the partisans, and distributed anti-fascist newspapers. By the end of 1941, a single underground organization was formed on the territory of the ghetto.
The leaders of anti-fascist groups organized the withdrawal of prisoners to partisan detachments. They acted as conductorsusually children. The names of little heroes are known: Vilik Rubezhin, Fanya Gimpel, Bronya Zvalo, Katya Peregonok, Bronya Gamer, Misha Longin, Lenya Modkhilevich, Albert Meisel.
Prisoner Escape
The first armed group from the ghetto tried to get to the partisans in November 1941. It was headed by B. Khaimovich. The escaped prisoners wandered through the woods for a long time. However, the partisans were never found. Almost all former prisoners died at the end of the winter of 1942. The next group got out in April of the same year. The leaders were Lapidus, Losik and Oppenheim. These prisoners managed to survive, moreover, later they created a separate partisan detachment.
On March 30, 25 Jews were taken out of the ghetto. This operation was led not by a former prisoner, but by a German captain. It is worth telling more about this person.
Willy Schultz
At the start of the war, a Luftwaffe captain was wounded in combat on the Western Front. He was sent to Minsk, where he took the post of head of the quartermaster service. In 1942, German Jews were brought to the ghetto. Among them was eighteen-year-old Ilse Stein, with whom Schultz fell in love at first sight.
The captain tried his best to alleviate the fate of the girl. He arranged for her to be a foreman, and Ilse's friend Leah as her assistant. Schultz regularly brought them food from the officers' canteen and warned them more than once about the upcoming pogroms.
The military command began to treat the captain with suspicion. The following entries appeared in his personal file: "listening to Moscow radio", "suspected in connection with a Jewess I. Stein." Schultz tried to organize the girl's escape. However, to no avail.
Ilsa's friend was connected with the partisan movement, thanks to which in March 1943 they managed to organize an escape. Willy Schultz risked his life primarily for the sake of his girlfriend. He was ready to help her friend, besides, Leia spoke Russian. But members of the underground organization used the captain to organize the escape of a large group of Jews.
On March 30, 25 people left the Minsk ghetto, including women and children. After the escape, Willy Schulz was sent to the Central School of Anti-Fascists, located in Krasnogorsk. He died in 1944 from meningitis. Ilse Stein gave birth to a boy, but the child died. She got married in 1953. Stein died in 1993.
According to one version, Ilsa loved only Schultz all her life. According to another, she hated him, but was ready to do anything to save her loved ones (among the participants in the escape on April 30 were her sisters). In 2012, the film "The Jewess and the Captain" was filmed in Germany. In 2012, the book Lost Love by Ilse Stein was published.
Isai Kazinets
The future head of the Minsk underground was born in 1910 in the Kherson region. In 1922, Isai Kazinets moved to Batumi, where he received the profession of engineer. In 1941, together with the retreating units of the Soviet army, he reached Minsk. Kazinets stayed in the city and joined the underground organization.
In November, he was elected secretary of the Underground City Committee. Under his leadership, about a hundred sabotage actions were carried out. In early 1942, the Germans managed to arrest several leaders of the underground. One of them issuedIsaiah Kazintsa. During the arrest, he offered armed resistance, killed several three soldiers. On May 7, 1942, Kazints, as well as 28 other members of the underground organization, were hanged in the city center.
There are many monuments to the victims of the Minsk ghetto in the capital of Belarus. A memorial sign was erected at the place of execution of Kazints. A street and a square are named after him.
Mikhail Gebelev
This man was born in 1905 in one of the villages of the Minsk region, in the family of a cabinetmaker. In 1927, Mikhail Gebelev was drafted into the army. After demobilization, he settled in Minsk.
On the second day after the start of the war, Gebelev went to the army assembly point, but then there was complete confusion. He returned to the city, and in July he headed an underground organization. Fearless Herman - this is how Gebelev was called by other members of the underground. He de alt with many issues, including the organization of sending prisoners to partisan detachments. He took part in the distribution of anti-fascist newspapers. According to Smolyar's memoirs, at the end of March 1942, Gebelev became one of the main leaders of a single underground organization.
He was arrested in July 1942. Members of the underground tried to rescue their leader. However, he was suddenly transferred to another prison and hanged. Thanks to the efforts of Mikhail Gebelev, about ten thousand Jews in the period 1941-1943 joined the Soviet partisans.
Memory
A lot of memoirs and heartfelt poems about the Minsk ghetto were created after the war. Most of it is writtendirect witnesses of the tragic events. Children and grandchildren of former prisoners also dedicated their works to the Minsk ghetto.
Abram Rubenchik was 14 at the beginning of the war. Terrible trials fell on the lot of his family. He dedicated his book The Truth About the Minsk Ghetto to his mother, father and others who died in 1942. The chronicle of events is set out scrupulously - the author of the journalistic story was then at an age when memory is especially tenacious. This work describes all the important stages in the history of the occupation of the Belarusian capital - from the arrival of the Germans to the release of prisoners. Other stories and essays on this topic:
- “Glimpses of Memory” by M. Treister.
- "Minsk ghetto through the eyes of my father" I. Kanonik.
- "Long way to the starry street" by S. Gebelev.
- "Sparks in the Night" by S. Sadovskaya.
- "You can't forget" Rubinstein.
- "Catastrophe of the Jews in Belarus" by L. Smilovitsky.
The main monument to the victims of the Minsk ghetto in Belarus - "Pit" - the first memorial in the USSR, which has an inscription not only in Russian, but also in Yiddish. The obelisk was opened two years after the end of the war. The words engraved on the monument belong to the poet Khaim M altinsky, whose family died in the Minsk ghetto. The monument "The Last Way" was installed in 2000.
