Ghetto of Brest

The ghetto of Brest , was a ghetto established by the Nazis in Soviet Belarus shortly after the German invasion of 1941, during World War II , to concentrate the population Jewish .

History

Brest is a Belarusian city located near the present border with Poland . The city comprised until 1921 of Russia , when it happened to be able of Poland. At the beginning of World War II , as a result of non - aggression pact Nazi-Soviet , the city passed to control the Soviet Union in 1939 and in 1941 was occupied by the German army.

The ghetto was founded a few months after the invasion, on December 16, 1941, housing 18,000 people who were considered Jews according to the criteria of the Nuremberg Laws . The ghetto was divided into two unequal parts: a larger one, located in the north, and a smaller one, of the southern area inhabited by the Jews.

At the beginning of the winter of 1942 , in January, clandestine organizations of Jewish resistance to the German occupation had been established in the ghetto. Months later, in the autumn of 1942, the Nazis demanded large tributes on money, gold, silver and jewels to Jews, under threat of liquidation of the ghetto. In spite of having paid an altra contribution, in a short time the ghetto was liquidated and the majority of its occupants were assassinated.

Between the days 15 and 18 of October of 1942, the liquidation of the ghetto was carried out. During these days some people were killed, while the rest of the Jews were taken to Mount Heilbronn, near Biaroza , where they were shot and buried in graves. ¹

Organization

The internal administration of the ghetto was delegated in a Jewish Board composed of 60 members, ^two whose president was Hersh Rosenberg and was subordinated to the Jewish police that had the function of keeping order in the ghetto. In the ghetto there was also, a hospital, some popular shops and kitchens.