# The Holocaust in Byerazino district

The Holocaust in Byerazino District refers to the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews in Byerazino District of Minsk Region in Belarus by Nazi Germany and its collaborators from 1941 to 1944, during World War II. This atrocity was part of the broader "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", an integral component of the Holocaust in Belarus and the wider genocide of European Jewry.

## Genocide of Jews in the district

Byerazino District was fully occupied by German troops in July 1941, and the occupation lasted for more than three years until July 3, 1944. The Nazis included Byerazino District in the territory administratively assigned to the rear zone of Army Group Center. Commandant's offices had full authority in the district. In all major villages of the district, district (volost) administrations and police garrisons of collaborators were established. To implement the policy of genocide and conduct punitive operations, SS punitive units, Einsatzgruppen, Sonderkommandos, the Secret Field Police (GFP), the Security Police and SD, the gendarmerie, and the Gestapo arrived in the district immediately after the troops. Simultaneously with the occupation, the Nazis and their accomplices began the total extermination of Jews. "Actions" (a euphemism used by the Nazis for the mass murders they organized) were repeated many times in many places. In those settlements where Jews were not killed immediately, they were kept in ghettos until complete extermination, used for heavy and dirty forced labor, from which many prisoners died due to unbearable workloads, constant hunger, and lack of medical care. During the occupation, almost all Jews in Byerazino District were killed, and the few survivors mostly fought later in partisan detachments.

## Ghettos

The occupation authorities, under the threat of death, forbade Jews to remove yellow patches or six-pointed stars (identification marks on outer clothing), leave the ghetto without special permission, change their place of residence and apartment within the ghetto, walk on sidewalks, use public transport, be in parks and public places, attend schools. The Germans, implementing the Nazi program of exterminating Jews, created 3 ghettos in the district.
* In the ghetto of the town of Berezino (summer 1941—July 1942), more than 1,000 Jews from Berezino and neighboring villages were tortured and killed.
* In the ghetto in the village of Bogushevichi (late summer 1941—December 1941), about 400 Jews from Bogushevichi and nearby villages were killed.

### Ghetto in Borovino

The village (Borevino) was occupied from July 3, 1941, to July 2, 1944. The ghetto in the village existed until November 28, 1942, when the Nazis killed the last 240 Jews. In 1975, a monument was erected on the mass grave.

## Cases of Rescue and "Righteous Among the Nations"

Few Jews managed to hide in attics, basements, and "malinas" (pre-constructed hiding places) during the "actions." Most of them joined the partisans after escaping. In Bogushevichi, Chaya Shusterovich miraculously survived, but her four children perished. Zina Levina-Malyarchuk and 17 other Jews managed to escape, taking advantage of the guards' confusion, and joined the partisans. Also, in November 1941, 15-year-old Reuven (Roman) Plaksa managed to escape with his older brother. The boy Melamed (Melamedzon) was hidden for a time by an unknown family. Nine residents of the Berezinsky District were awarded the honorary title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Israeli memorial institute Yad Vashem "in deepest gratitude for the help given to the Jewish people during World War II":
* Vladimir, Varvara, and Alexander Kosokovsky—for saving Zinaida Krasner in Berezino;
* Polycarp Kruglik, his wife, Ivan, Nikolai, Anton—for saving the sisters Tamara and Elizaveta Zorina;
* Nina Kononovna Gaiduk (Grinberg)—for saving Evgenia Guzik and her brother Peter.

## Commemoration

Monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in the district have been erected in Berezino, Bogushevichi, and Borovino. Incomplete lists of Jews killed in Byerazino District have been published.