Murder Story of Nowogródek Jews on Minsk Street in Nowogródek

On May 7, 1943, 289 Jews, mostly women, from the Nowogródek ghetto were murdered near the courthouse on Minsk Street. After several mass killing operations carried out during 1941, some 1,300-1,500 Jews remained in Nowogrodek, the vast majority holders of work permits and members of the Judenrat. They were concentrated in a ghetto located in the poor Peresieka suburb on the outskirts of the city. The ghetto was divided into twelve areas, and a member of the Judenrat was placed in charge of each. A small hospital was established in the ghetto by Dr. Berkman. The ghetto was extremely overcrowded, with about twenty people to a room.In the spring of 1942, the Germans murdered the members of the Judenrat and a new Judenrat was appointed, headed by Haim Isakovicz. During that period, the Germans transferred 3,000-4,500 Jews from surrounding localities to Nowogrodek, transforming it into a workshop center for Jews in the area. The severe overcrowding in the ghetto caused a deterioration in the quality of life of its residents, and the Jewish Order Service took harsh steps to halt the frequent escape attempts.On August 7, 1942, another murder operation was carried out, in which some 3,000 of the ghetto’s residents, including children, were murdered outside the city near the village of Litowka, and another 500 were murdered in the area of the former barracks near the city.At this stage, about 1,250 Jews remained in the ghetto. After a while, the ghetto was divided into two parts: some 700 people with required professions and their families were moved into the buildings of the former courthouse, and the remaining 500 Jews stayed in the Peresieka ghetto. The ghetto residents persisted in their attempts to flee to the forests and find shelter among the partisan units and in the family camp established by the Bielski brothers, notwithstanding the opposition of the Judenrat and the Jewish Order Service.On February 4, 1943, a further murder operation was perpetrated in which some 500 Jews were killed. The survivors continued to toil in the workshops. On May 7, 1943, a selection was carried out among the professionals in the ghetto, which functioned as a labor camp. More than 300 Jews, mostly women and children, were murdered by the local police and a Lithuanian unit in Hardzilowka, near the courthouse. About 300 Jews, mostly artisans, remained in the ghetto.Following this massacre, a Jewish underground formed in Nowogrodek in the spring-September of 1942. An underground council with forty-two members from various parties was established, headed by Yaakov Cohen. A number of ghetto inhabitants managed to escape, primarily with the assistance of Jewish emissaries sent from the partisan battalion of the Bielski brothers. The underground planned and organized an escape, and for three months a 250-meter-long tunnel was dug, through which the 233 Jews remaining in the ghetto tried to escape on September 26, 1943. About 170 of them succeeded in reaching the forests, where they joined the Bielski partisans’ brigade. The rest were shot and killed either during the escape or afterwards, when they were caught by the Germans in the forests.