Country: Belarus

Group: Jews

Date: 03/29/2022

Team: Ash Pessaran (lead), Gabby Staker, Lacey Hurst, Erin Fagan

Content Warnings: Genocide, War, Murder

Approximate Time Period: 1930-1950

            The number of Jews in Belarus is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. By the 1990s, Russian was spoken by 99 percent of Jews there. According to the Belarusian census of 1999, the number was as low as 28,000; however, the National Council for Soviet Jewry estimates that the number is between 50,000 and 80,000. Belarus’ Jews are mostly concentrated in the cities of Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev, and Vitebsk (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

            Jews faced lethal violence in Belarus during World War II. The holocaust took place in many places across Europe including Belarus. Estimates say that during the holocaust, around 90% of the Jewish population in Belarus was murdered (European Jewish Congress, 2021). When German soldiers defeated the Soviet defense, many Jews attempted to flee with the retreating Red Army. Only a few were successful. When the Nazis took control of Belarus, they began concentrating Jews in ghettos, killing the elderly, young, and old, and forcing all able-bodied men and women to labor for the Third Reich (facinghistory.org, n.d.b). Estimates for the number killed range from 600,000 to 900,000 (Adamushko, 2012).

There has been a revival of Jewish culture in Belarus since the 1990s, with a reported 26 Jewish communities, five national organizations, and 15 local cultural groups (Minority Rights Group, 2015). There is “reportedly no official anti-Semitism in post-Soviet Belarus;” however, repErcussions from the Soviet period are still being felt in battles over land rights. Many Jews have been denied access to venues for religious ceremonies (Minority Rights Group, 2015).There is some apparent tension between Jewish people and the Russian Orthodox Church, with a few cases of anti-Semitic literature published by the ROC (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Many memorials of the Holocaust in Belarus do not specifically distinguish Jewish victims from other victims, and there has been a push to erect monuments to commemorate Jewish victims specifically (Belarus 2020 Human Rights Report).

Data Quality (3/ 3)

Sources

  1. Adamushko, V. I. (2012, January 3). On the Genocide of the Jewish Population in Belarus Republic during WWII. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. https://www.ehri-project.eu/content/genocide-jewish-population-belarus-republic-during-wwii
  2. European Jewish Congress (2021). Belarus. (2021, August 16). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://eurojewcong.org/communities/belarus/
  3. U.S. Dept. of State (2020). Belarus 2020 human rights report – justice.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2022, from https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1386481/download
  4. Facinghistory.org (n.d.a). Jewish life in Belarus before the Holocaust. Facing History and Ourselves. Retrieved March 27, 2022, from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/resistance-during-holocaust/jewish-life-belarus-holocaust
  5. Facinghistory.org (n.d.b). The Holocaust in Belarus. Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/resistance-during-holocaust/holocaust-belarus
  6. Minority Rights Group. Jews. (2021, February 5). Retrieved March 27, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/jews/
  7. Petrad. (2012, January 25). On the genocide of the Jewish population in Belarus Republic during WWII. On the Genocide of the Jewish Population in Belarus Republic during WWII | European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.ehri-project.eu/content/genocide-jewish-population-belarus-republic-during-wwii