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"'Ghetto in Pruzhany'" (October 20 1941 — 31 January 1943) — Jewish ghetto, place of forced resettlement Jews of the city Pruzhany Brest region and nearby settlements in the process of persecution and extermination of Jews during occupation of the territory of Belarus by the troops of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Occupation of Pruzhany and creation of ghetto
Pruzhany were captured by German troops on June 23, 1941 and were under occupation for 3 years and 1 month — until 17 (16) July 1944.

Immediately after the occupation, the Germans began to carry out "actions" (as the Nazis called the mass killings organized by them), shooting local Jews in the tract Slobudka under Pruzhany For example, already in the first days of the occupation, 18 Jews were captured and shot at the tip of local criminals and collaborators — the eldest of whom (Sh. Dobesu) was over 60 years old, and the youngest (R. Averbukh) was not even 17 years old.

On July 15, under the threat of execution of 100 hostages, the occupiers demanded to create a [Judenrat] of 24 people, but the proposed list of persons with higher education was not approved. A week later, the authorities formed a judenrat of 5 artisans. In the future, its number was increased to 24 people, and I. became chairman. Yanovich.

On October 20, 1941, the Germans, implementing the Nazi program of extermination of Jews, drove the Pruzhany Jews into the ghetto.

Conditions in the ghetto
Jews from nearby villages also ended up in the ghetto, including about 2,000 Jews from Ruzhan, Shereshevo, a number of other settlements in the western regions and, according to various sources, from 4,500 to about 6,000 people from Bialystokand  (12 000 ) Jews.

Destruction of the ghetto
In the spring of 1942, two underground organizations were created in the ghetto. One was headed by Aron Goldstein, Yosef Rosen and Yitzhok Shereshevsky, the second by Yitzhok Friedberg and Shmariyahu Elman. Sholom Kholyavsky, one of the leaders of the uprising in the Nesvizh ghetto and a member of the Belarusian partisan movement, wrote: "'I am not saying that every Jew in the ghetto participated in an underground movement or fought the enemy, but it cannot be denied that the whole nature of life in the ghetto was underground. It was mass Jewish heroism'"

The Germans took the possibility of Jewish Resistance very seriously, and therefore, first of all, they killed Jewish men aged 15 to 50 in the ghetto or even before its creation - despite the economic inexpediency, since they were the most able—bodied prisoners. Therefore, at the beginning of July 1942, the Nazis gathered 5,000 men and boys from 16 years old in the fortress in Pruzhany, and on July 10 they also drove women and old people there. All of them were shot 10-15 kilometers from Brest. Subsequently, a witness was found who testified about this mass murder — a German by the name of Heinrich.

On December 25, 1942, 4 partisans made their way into the ghetto (two of them later died) and warned that in the coming days the Germans planned to kill all the prisoners of the ghetto, but it was almost impossible to escape. On December 27, prisoners began to be taken out of the ghetto on carts, some of whom were killed in Birch and at the station Oranchitsy, and some were taken to Auschwitz.

On the eve of the final liquidation of the ghetto, members of the Judenrat, who rejected all plans to raise an uprising, set fire to the ghetto and try to escape, committed collective suicide.

On January 31, 1943, the ghetto was completely destroyed.

Resistance
During the removal of Jews to Auschwitz, a crowd of residents from neighboring villages gathered around the ghetto fence, waiting for the remaining Jewish property to be taken away. But the looters were prevented by the fact that the Jews, as it turned out, prepared and provided the Germans with armed resistance. A group of prisoners from Shershevskaya Street staged a distracting attack. On the other side of the ghetto, Jews threw grenades at the gates, and began to break through the bullets of Germans and policemen.

Some of the prisoners hid in prepared hiding places, but all of them were later found and killed. Almost 100 Jews slipped through the dense fire of the Nazis and reached the Zamoshensky forest. Only after three days of wandering in the extreme cold, the escapees found partisan contacts. However, the partisans selected only 8 people for themselves. Someone gave the rest to the Germans, they were soon surrounded and all killed.

Cases of salvation and "Righteous People of the world"
During the entire existence of the ghetto, some of the strongest and hardiest prisoners were able to escape into the woods and later fought as part of partisan detachments. Several Jews were rescued by local residents.

In Pruzhany, three people were awarded the honorary title "Righteous among the Nations of the World" from Israel Memorial Institute "Yad Vashem" ""as a sign of deepest gratitude for the help provided to the Jewish people during World War II"":
 * Chewbac Genefa — for saving Goldfine Olga.
 * Anna Pashkevich — for saving Evgenia Virshubskaya and her daughters Regina and Ada.
 * Popko Andrey — for saving Charno Nina.

Memory
In total, more than 10,000 Jews were killed in the Pruzhany ghetto.

A monument has been erected at the site of the murder of Pruzhany Jews, and a memorial complex has been erected in the Jewish cemetery of the city in memory of the victims of Disasters.

Used literature

 * National Archive of the Republic of Belarus (NARB). — fund 861, inventory 1, case 3, sheet 36;
 * State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). — fund 7021, inventory 83, case 22, sheets 4-6;
 * State Archive of the Brest region (GABO), — fund 514, inventory 1, case 204, sheets 2, 4, 5;
 * National Archive of the Republic of Belarus (NARB). — fund 861, inventory 1, case 3, sheet 36;
 * State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). — fund 7021, inventory 83, case 22, sheets 4-6;
 * State Archive of the Brest region (GABO), — fund 514, inventory 1, case 204, sheets 2, 4, 5;
 * State Archive of the Brest region (GABO), — fund 514, inventory 1, case 204, sheets 2, 4, 5;

Additional literature

 * ''Yitzhak Arad". The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the German occupation (1941-1944). Collection of documents and materials, Jerusalem, publishing house Yad Vashem, 1991, ISBN 9653080105
 * ''Yitzhak Arad". The extermination of the Jews of the USSR during the German occupation (1941-1944). Collection of documents and materials, Jerusalem, publishing house Yad Vashem, 1991, ISBN 9653080105