Słonim Ghetto
Nazi ghetto in occupied Belarus / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Słonim Ghetto (Polish: getto w Słonimiu, Belarusian: Слонімскае гета, German: Ghetto von Slonim, Yiddish: סלאָנים) was a Nazi ghetto established in 1941 by the SS in Slonim, Western Belarus during World War II. Prior to 1939, the town (Słonim) was part of the Second Polish Republic. The town was captured in late June 1941 by the Wehrmacht in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa. Anti-Jewish measures were promptly put into place, and a barb-wire surrounded ghetto had been created by 12 July. The killings of Jews by mobile extermination squads began almost immediately. Mass killings took place in July and November. The survivors were used as slave labor. After each killing, significant looting by the Nazis occurred. A Judenrat was established to pay a large ransom; after paying out 2 million roubles of gold, its members were then executed. In March 1942, ghettos in the surrounding areas were merged into the Słonim ghetto.
Słonim Ghetto | |
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Slonim in modern-day Belarus | |
Location | Slonim, Western Belarus 53°05′49″N 25°19′29″E |
Incident type | Imprisonment, slave labor, mass killings |
Organizations | SS, Einsatzgruppe C, Belarusian Auxiliary Police, Wehrmacht |
Executions | Pietrolewicze, Czepielów [1] |
Victims | 22,000–25,000 Jews[2] |
On 29 June 1942, the ghetto revolted, families went into hiding underground, and armed struggle broke out. Five Germans were killed; they retaliated by killing between 8,000 and 55,000 Jews (based on figures by Nazis). By August the ghetto was nearly empty, and the last few hundred inhabitants were killed. Some Jews had escaped to a nearby Catholic Church, which was revealed by the collaborationist local government. The Nazis raided the church and killed the priest and two nuns, all who would later be beatified. Słonim was recaptured by the Soviets in 1944, and would eventually become part of Belarus. According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, some 22,000 people died in the Słonim ghetto.