Jewish partisans were the first Jews to return to the recaptured White Russian capital of Minsk, all of whose Jews were either murdered or deported during the three years the Germans held the city.
The Moscow press reports from Minsk that hundreds of partisans who operated in the Minsk area during the German occupation are now returning to the city. Among these partisans are many Jews who fled the Byelorussian capital to avoid execution or deportation.
The dispatch from Minsk contains an eye-witness report of the ghetto area there, confirming that no Jews were left in the city. “One district, which was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, was bare of life,” the dispatch says. “This had been the Jewish ghetto, the occupants of which were all exterminated.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
