Minsk Ghetto
The Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in Eastern Europe, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union. It housed close to 100,000 Jews, most of whom perished in The Holocaust.
History
The Soviet census of 1926 showed 53,700 Jews living in Minsk (constituting close to 41% of the city's inhabitants).
The ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and capture of the city of Minsk, capital of the Belorussian SSR, on 28 June 1941. On the fifth day after the occupation, 2,000 Jewish intelligentsia were massacred by the Germans; from then on, murders of Jews became a common occurrence. About 20,000 Jews were murdered within the first few months of the German occupation, mostly by the Einsatzgruppen squads.
On 17 July 1941 the German occupational authority, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, was created. On 20 July, the Minsk Ghetto was established. A Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established as well. The total population of the ghetto was about 80,000 (over 100,000 according to some sources), of which about 50,000 were pre-war inhabitants, and the remainder (30,000 or more) were refugees and Jews forcibly resettled by the Germans from nearby settlements.
Minsk
Minsk (Belarusian: Мінск pronounced [mʲinsk]; Russian: Минск, [mʲinsk], Polish: Mińsk) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Nyamiha rivers. It is the administrative centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblast) and Minsk raion (district). In 2013, it had a population of 2,002,600.
The earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was noted as a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499.
From 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union.
Minsk (disambiguation)
Minsk may refer to:
Places
Technology
Other meanings
See also
Minsk (band)
Minsk is a doom metal/post-metal band from Peoria, Illinois founded in 2002. Self described as "psychedelic metal", their songs tend to start out as slow and simple, and become heavy and complex towards the end. Their sound draws equally from sludge metal, doom metal, hardcore punk, ambient and noise music, with a highly psychedelic attitude achieved through tribal drum patterns, thick layers of synthesizers and keyboards, and echoing vocals. They are named after the capital of Belarus. The idea of survival through suffering is a recurring theme in the lyrics and musical style. In fact, regarding the origin of their name, their official biography states: "Drawing its nominal inspiration from a remote Belarusian city nestled deep amidst the in-betweens of the East and the West, a city that has been burned to the ground on several occasions only to be rebuilt like a Phoenix rising from its ashes." The sounds and atmospheres they evoke in their songs are complex and psychedelic.
Podcasts:
