The Holocaust saw the systematic extermination of Jews living in Byelorussia during its occupation by Nazi Germany in World War II. Before the construction of the Extermination Camps in Poland, the Holocaust was to be carried out in Belarus and the Baltic states using large gassing installations and transport by boats on the waterways rather than by trains. Although the Extermination Camps were eventually established in occupied Poland, roughly 800,000 Belarusian Jews (or about 90% of the Jewish population of Belarus) were murdered according to one estimate. Other estimates place the number of Jews killed between 500,000 and 550,000 (about 80% of the Belarusian Jewish population).
HINT:
π History of the Jews in Belarus in the context of The Holocaust in Belarus
In this Dossier
- π History of the Jews in Belarus in the context of The Holocaust in Belarus
- History of the Jews in Belarus in the context of Eastern European Jewry
History of the Jews in Belarus in the context of Eastern European Jewry
The expression Eastern European Jewry has two meanings. Its first meaning refers to the current political spheres of the Eastern European countries and its second meaning refers to the Jewish communities in Russia and Poland. The phrase 'Eastern European Jews' or 'Jews of the East' (from German: Ostjuden) was established during the 20th century in the German Empire and in the western provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, aiming to distinguish the integrating Jews in Central Europe from those Jews who lived in the East. This feature deals with the second meaning of the concept of Eastern European Jewryβthe Jewish groups that lived in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Romania, Hungary and modern-day Moldova in collective settlement (from Hebrew: Kibbutz- Χ§ΧΧΧΧ₯), many of whom spoke Yiddish.
At the beginning of the 20th century, over six million Jews lived in Eastern Europe. They were organized into large and small communities, living in big cities, such as Warsaw (with a population of about 300,000 Jews), as well as in small towns with populations of only tens or hundreds of Jews.
View the full Wikipedia page for Eastern European Jewry