Kobryn Ghetto

Kobryn Ghetto
Location	Kobryn
Date	August 1941 – October 14, 1942

The Kobryn Ghetto (August 1941 – October 14, 1942) was a Jewish ghetto, a site of forced resettlement for the Jews of Kobryn in the Brest Region of Belarus and nearby settlements during the persecution and extermination of Jews under the Nazi occupation of Belarus during World War II.

Jews in Kobryn Before the War

The first mention of Jews in Kobryn dates back to the 16th century. According to the 1897 census, there were 25,349 Jews in the entire district, including 6,738 in Kobryn itself. Jews made up 64.8% of the town's population. In the early 1920s, Kobryn had a Jewish population of 5,431, accounting for about 66% of the total residents. Most of Kobryn's Jews were engaged in construction, textile production, trade, and other occupations.

The Onset of World War II and the Nazi Occupation of Kobryn

At the beginning of World War II, refugees from the German-occupied part of Poland fled to Kobryn, while some Zionist-leaning Jewish youth from Kobryn escaped to Vilna, aiming to emigrate to Palestine. As a result, the Jewish population of the city grew to approximately 8,000 people.

By the evening of June 23, 1941, German forces had captured Kobryn. The occupation lasted for three years and one month, until July 20, 1944.

Shortly after the occupation began, the Jews were forced to establish a Judenrat, led by former merchant Angelovich, and a Jewish police force, which was armed with rubber truncheons. The Jews of Kobryn were ordered to wear yellow strips on their backs (later replaced by yellow patches and strips with the Star of David), which the Germans referred to as "Schandfleck" ("shameful stain").

In July 1941, approximately 200 Jews were captured in Gestapo raids on the streets of Kobryn and executed near the suburban estate of Patriki. In August, another 180 sick and unfit Jews were rounded up and shot near the village of Imenin.

In August (or autumn) 1941, the German authorities issued an order to establish two ghettos in the city.

Establishment of the Ghetto

Ghetto "A" was located in the southern part of the city. Its territory was bordered on the west by the left side of modern Suvorov Street, on the south and east by Svoboda Square, and on the right sides of Pervomaiskaya and Kirova Streets. The gaps between the facades of houses along the ghetto's perimeter were sealed off with a solid wooden fence. This ghetto housed able-bodied Jews, skilled workers, and those who managed to bribe the police.

All other Jews were forcibly relocated to Ghetto "B", which was confined to the western part of Svoboda Square up to the bridge and the right sides of Sovetskaya and Sportivnaya Streets. This ghetto was not even fenced off, as it housed only the elderly, women, children, and the sick.

The Jews were given minimal time to relocate to the ghetto, and non-Jews, who had been expelled from the ghetto area, were immediately resettled in the vacated Jewish homes.

The Kobryn Ghetto also became a holding site for Jews from neighboring towns (such as Hajnówka and Białowieża). It supplied forced laborers to work camps in Khodos and Zaprudy.

Conditions in the Ghetto

All communication between the ghetto's Jewish inhabitants and the authorities was only possible through the Judenrat.

Under the threat of death, ghetto prisoners were forbidden from walking on sidewalks, appearing in public without a yellow patch, or interacting with non-Jews.

Every day, Jews were marched out under police guard to perform forced labor.

Destruction of Ghetto "B"

On June 2, 1942, the prisoners of Ghetto "B" were gathered in Svoboda Square. The chairman of the Judenrat was forced to deliver a reassuring speech, falsely claiming that the Jews were being sent to work. Under the guard of SS officers with dogs, the doomed crowd was marched to the railway station and crammed into freight cars—200 people per car.

Approximately 1,800 Jews were transported this way and executed near the Bronnaya Gora railway station. Many died during the journey, unable to withstand the extreme heat and lack of air in the overcrowded wagons.

Before the massacre, the Nazis forced 300 local peasants to dig eight mass graves, each 40 to 80 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 4 meters deep. The area was enclosed with barbed wire. Upon arrival, the victims were ordered to strip naked, descend into the pits via ladders, and lie face down in rows. They were then shot, with the next group forced to lie atop the corpses before being executed.

Destruction of Ghetto "A"

In October 1942, the Nazis forced 160 men from the village of Khidry to dig execution pits in the Borisovsky Forest, along the Kobryn-Divin road, about 14 km from Kobryn (near the southern outskirts of Kobryn, on the fields of the kolkhoz Novy Put').

On October 14 (or 15), 1942, approximately 4,000 to 4,500 prisoners from Ghetto "A" were executed at this site.

After the massacre, the empty ghetto was thoroughly searched multiple times by the Nazi executioners. They broke down locked doors, inspected attics and basements, and used iron rods to probe the ground for hiding places. Helpless sick and elderly Jews left behind in the houses were murdered on the spot.

A small group of 72 Jewish specialists who had been working for the German administration were executed by December 1943 in the courtyard of the Kobryn prison.

Resistance

During the liquidation of the ghetto, some prisoners offered armed resistance. Others managed to escape into the forests and joined partisan groups, while some were hidden by local residents.

For their active assistance to Jews, including the illegal issuance of baptism certificates, two Polish priests were executed on October 15, 1942:

• Jan Wolski, the parish priest
• Władysław Grobelny, the vicar

Memory and Commemoration

At least 6,900 Jews were murdered in Kobryn.

A memorial monument has been erected on the outskirts of Kobryn, at the end of Pervomaiskaya Street, at one of the execution sites, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust genocide.

See also

• Khomsk Ghetto