Documentation of the National Archives of the Belarusian Republic, 1939-1941

History: Annexation of the area of what is Belorussia today by the Russian Empire in 1793. In January 1919, the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared. Following the Soviet-Polish war in 1920, the western areas of Belorussia, including the cities of Brest, Hrodna, Nowogródek (Navahrudak) and Pinsk, were incorporated into Poland, while the east remained a part of the Soviet Union. Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement, the Red Army conquered eastern Poland in September 1939 and returned to itself the areas that it had lost in the past. The German Army crossed over and invaded the Soviet border on 22 June 1941 and conquered Minsk, the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, within a week. Germany occupied and controlled all of Belorussia already by September 1941. The western part of the occupied Soviet Republic was transferred to the civil administration, while the eastern part was administrated by the [German] Army. The part under the civilian administration was divided between the general region of White Ruthenia (the main part of the area) and the general region of Lithuania (the northwestern part), both of them becoming the Reichskommissariat Ostland. Additional areas were joined to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (in the south) and to the Bialystok district, which was adjacent to the German Gau (area) of East Prussia (in the northwest). The Red Army brought the German occupation of Belorussia to an end in August 1944. Belorussia declared its independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. Before the German invasion, the population of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic numbered a total of 9,200,000 people. Approximately 700,000 of them were Jews. According to various estimates, between 153,000-165,000 Jews from Belorussia succeeded in escaping or were evacuated during the German invasion. The murder of the Jews in Belorussia was carried out in most part by members of Einsatzgruppen A and Einsatzgruppen B, and by the Security Police and Order Police who were stationed in Belorussia. Most of the Jews in Belorussia were murdered in two large waves of killings: between late summer 1941 and during 1942. As the scope of the mass murder widened, the Germans relied more and more on local collaborators and organizations of collaborators. The last Jewish ghettos in western Belorussia were liquidated during summer 1942, while the Minsk Ghetto (one of the largest ghettos in Europe) was liquidated completely by October 1943. The percentage of Jews who perished in Belorussia during the Holocaust was one of the highest in Europe. The number of victims has been estimated to be between 450,000 to 600,000, including Jewish refugees from Poland. The Germans murdered Jews in Belorussia who lived in Belorussia, and also murdered Jews from the Reich or from Bohemia who were deported or escaped to Belorussia from places throughout Europe. The Belorussian Archives are most significant for Holocaust research, including the National Archives of the Belarusian Republic. In the Archives' collections is information regarding: the German occupation organizations; partisans organizations; Communist Party files; and commissions of investigation following the liberation, made by the Belorussian Commission for the Investigation of Fascist Crimes carried out in the Soviet area by the Germans: - the central documentation of the Communist Party of Belorussia: Personal files of Jewish Communists in various institutions in Belorussia in 1939; - Personal files of Jewish Communists in various institutions in Belorussia during 1939-1941: Orphanages in Belostok; - the partisans headquarters in Belorussia during World War II: personal files regarding the experiences of Jewish partisans, including Jewish women partisans.