We still do not know the exact number of the victims of Pinsk ghetto. The researches of this problem say this number varies between 18 000 and 30 000.
Holocaust and thousands of victims… World War II is a very painful part of Jewish history.
Every second year on June 14 (the day of liberation of Pinsk from German aggressors) a delegation of Pinsk Jews from Israel visits Pinsk.

By Inna Demid (text) and Lena Dikovitskaya (illustrations)

Pinsk has been losing its individuality for some decades of the passed century. One of the reasons of transforming the capital of Polesye into a provincial town, to the opinion of the research workers at the Museum of the Belorussian Polesye, is the fact that the Jewish population has been leaving Pinsk on a mass scale since the beginning of 1980. Perestroika, the collapse of the USSR, the “iron screen” downfall let Jews leave for their historical motherland Israel and also for Europe and the USA without any obstacles. It is very sad, but it seems that Pinsk lost its bright and rich color because of this…
This process is still going on. For the moment Jews leave Pinsk one by one. First they go abroad as visitors and then stay there permanently.
I can give you an example. Having graduated from the Historical faculty of the Belarusian State University, my friend Elena used to work as an archeologist at the Museum of the Belorussian Polesye in Pinsk. 3 years ago she immigrated to Israel. There she has changed a number of jobs: a dishwasher at the restaurant, a baby-sitter, a toilet cleaner… Now she works as an assistant of a dentist and also attends the librarian’s courses and the courses of English. Soon she stopped writing about the romanticism of the East in her letters, but could not stop saying that she missed her relatives, friends and Pinsk.
The older generation of Jews is not longing to leave their native place; they face more difficulties while accommodating themselves to the conditions of the new world. Having lived for a year in Israel one Jewish family returned to Pinsk. They said: “We couldn’t live there without Russian birches. Let our children live there - so we prefer stay here, in Pinsk”.
Recently a synagogue and a secondary school for Jewish children were opened, and also a cultural-educational association “Hased-Aron” was organized in Pinsk.
The present Jewish commune revives the Jewish traditions: they celebrate national holidays, sing songs, and learn the Jewish language. They will always remember Holocaust on the territory of Belarus during World War II.
At present Belarusian historians pay much attention to the history of national minorities, having lived on Belarusian lands: The Poles, the Tatars, the Ukrainians, the Russians.
Though the fate of the Belarusian Jews is a separate subject.
First they appeared here at the beginning of the 14-th century after the invitation of Gedymin, the Grand Duke of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. People, persecuted in Western Europe, reached the lands of Polesye and were given the right to live there. Since then they have made a great input to the development of material and spiritual culture of Eastern Slavic lands.
But World War II interrupted more than 600-year history of Jewish community on the territory of Belarus, and practically all the Jewish population with its unique culture was murdered. The same fate overtook the Jewish commune in Pinsk.

 
"Pinsk Jews were easy to get on with"

Jews started to settle in Pinsk since the end of the 15-th century. In 1506 Fedor Ivanovich Yaroslavich, the Prince of Pinsk, and his wife Elena gave Esko Meyerovich, Peisakh Ezophovich and Abraham Ryzhkovich the letters patent with the permission to open a synagogue and a cemetery in Pinsk. That year is considered to be the starting point of the Jewish commune existence. Pinsk became world famous as one of the biggest centers of Hasidism (a branch of Judaism).
Gradually the Jewish community in Pinsk was enlarged. The number of Jewish merchants and businessmen considerably increased. The Jews owned some lots of land so they were obliged to pay taxes (for roads repairs for example). The Jews rendered services to representatives of upper class - lent them money and also different goods.
Aleksandr Grushevsky, the historian, wrote: “Living side by side with the Russian population, Pinsk Jews were easy to get on with. Their economic conditions counted on their influence in the town - so some people could reach a rather privileged position as for example N. Peysakhovich, who even had the coat of arms and seals…”
In certain periods of the history of Pinsk the majority of population was Jewish: at the end of 19-th century 21 819 Jews (77,3% of all the population) lived in Pinsk. At that time Jews played the leading role in the city economy: handicrafts, building plants and factories.
The families of Lurye and Levin rendered great services to the economical development of the city. A number of prominent Jewish scientists, writers and politicians were born in Pinsk. The names of Haim Weisman, the first president of the state of Israel, and Golda Meyer, the first ambassador of Israel in the USSR and then the prime minister of Israel, are connected with Pinsk. Golda Meyer wrote about the town of her childhood in her book “My Life”: “Pinsk remains in my memory as the town of many Jews. It was one of the famous centers of Russian-Jewish life, and for some period the majority of its population was Jewish. The town was situated on the banks of the Pina and the Pripyat (the tributaries of the Dnepr). Those rivers gave the majority of Pinsk Jews means of subsistence. Some Jews were engaged in fishing, some worked as dockers or porters, in winter some of them chopped ice on the river and brought it to the cellars to be stored there for summer. Wealthy Jews traded in salt and timber. The Jews owned several factories and plants in Pinsk - the nailery, the plywood factory and the match plant. Dozens of Jewish workers were employed there…”
World War I, the revolution of 1917 and Polish-Russian war caused changes in Jewish commune’s life, but still the majority of the city population was Jewish: 17 513 Jews (74,6% of all the population) lived in Pinsk in 1921.

 
Everyone lived side by side to each other

Before World War II different Jewish political parties and movements were active in Pinsk, a couple of Jewish newspapers were published; there were Jewish schools and the private gymnasia. The old residents of Pinsk mentioned, that as Jews, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and local Polesians lived side by side to each other, any pogrom or skirmish on national grounds was out of the question. This could be explained by the geographical situation of the city: living close to the borders, the population of Pinsk was had to be tolerant to diversity and constant changes.
Nowadays the Jewish topic attracts much attention of Belarusian scientists. A lot of materials, dedicated to the history of Jewish ghettos and policy of genocide by German occupants on the territory of Belarus in 1941-1943 are being published.
Peaceful life of Western Belarus was interrupted on September 1, 1939 with the beginning of World War II. Lots of refugees arrived to Polesye. More than one thousand and a half cars and lorries crowded in Pinsk. Polish refugees occupied all rooms at the local hotels. A bit later Jews, fleeing from Poland, arrived to Pinsk. They were not so afraid of Hitler, but war actions ant bombing frightened them. Nobody was aware of the coming division of the territory of Poland, so refugees dispersed on its eastern outlying districts ? they did not expect that soon that territory would become soviet.
Pinsk, situated close to the eastern border of Poland, turned out to be cut from the outer world. Newspaper publishing was stopped and soon even the radio became silent…
On September 16, 1939 Moscow radio announced soviet troops crossing the Polish border. The soviet troops entering the territory of the Western Belarus caused deep changes in life of Jewish population. The Jewish population turned out to be split in classes. Some slices of Jewish population, being loyal to the soviets, expected social and national justice from them. Though class policy of the soviet power exploded those illusions.
More than a thousand and a half Jewish craftsmen were forced by the soviet power to unite in cooperative associations under the strict control of the authorities.
A certain number of merchants and businessmen found jobs at soviet administrative organs, some of them had to change their professions and way of life. Nationalization and other legislative enactments of soviet power and NKVD organs aimed at evacuation of a certain categories of people from the territory of Pinsk and Pinsk region (this area was regarded to be a regime one). The following categories had no right to live in a regime area: factories owners, officers of the Polish army, officials and the members of their families.
Instead of the promised national equality and friendship of peoples the Red Army arrival and the soviet power establishing caused a new wave of anti-Semitism, which had deep routs. The anti-Semitism of the local population could be explained by their resentment of soviet power home policy.
Taking into account problems and destabilization, caused by the presence of lots of refugees in boarder areas of Belarus, the authorities took the decision about their deportation to the depth of the USSR territory. This way it was planned to get rid of “class enemies”.
The deportation of the Poles in February 1940 was followed by deportation of Jewish owners of big factories and merchants. Ten families of factories owners - brothers Feldman and Kunda were forced to leave Pinsk together with others (altogether 383 families).
The last echelon with the repressed people left Pinsk on June 22, 1941. The parents of doctor Einbinder were there together with the others. Later, being in Pinsk ghetto, he wrote: “It is so painful, I feel lonely and unhappy. You were leaving and I couldn’t come close to you. You were crying - such cruel fate… We are sentenced for exile in those wild and cold places. Being already in the carriage my dear father said: “The fact that we are forced to leave means that soon war will begin”. That was true. That echelon left Pinsk at 8 o’clock in the morning and in a couple of hours Molotov, the minister of foreign affairs of the USSR, spoke - war!
On July 4, 1941 at 11 o’clock in the morning German airplanes were seen in the sky and the same day German troops occupied Pinsk. Local residents greeted them with flowers. For the majority of Pinsk people the new power was associated with the return of pre-soviet regime.
A couple of days later the German battalions, passing along Listovsky street (at present Komsomolskaya street), inhabited by Jews, took away 16 young Jewish men with them. Those young men were taken to the German headquarters and later murdered in the forest nearby.
One of them, wounded in his arm, managed to hide under the heap of dead bodies, which helped him to survive.
Those victims’ parents were forced to sign the papers where it was written that their son had been murdered by the retreating soviets.
In the first month of the occupation of Pinsk by the Germans there were organized: the commissariat (organ to controlall the civic population), then the magistrate (Pinsk city administration) and the police. These institutions exercised a strict control over social, political and cultural life of the city and the region.

 
Well-planned action

The Jewish population got under the repressions. During the registration each adult Jew received a seal in his soviet passport to confirm nationality and also a special certificate with the mark “Jude”. Men were registered separately from women. The certificates had been issued up to December 1941.
Jews were forbidden to leave Pinsk and appear in the street after 6 o’clock p.m. All of them had to wear a white ribbon with a yellow hexagram around a left arm. As well Jews were not allowed to walk on the pavement. A German general on visiting Pinsk was said to be surprised seeing lots of pedestrians walking on the carriageway while vehicles were moving along the pavement. He ordered to turn everything the right way.
At the end of June 1941 Judenrat (commissariat on Jewish issues) was organized. Soon after that in the village of Posenichi (7 km distance from Pinsk) the first mass execution by shooting of Pinsk Jews was organized. That was said to be a well-planned action as the graves were dug in advance.
From the memoirs of E. Mireck, the German soldier: “SS soldiers were forcing the doomed people to put money, rings, even gold dentures into their helmets. The ones which dared to resist were brutally beaten right there…”
On August 6 night 300 Jewish men, equipped with spades and hoes were sent to the place of murder to collect the corpses of those who had in vain tried to run away. When that work was finished, they were also shot with the exception of only two men, who were ordered to bury the dead bodies… The townsmen still remember how Jewish women burst out sobbing at seeing the carts loaded with the clothes of their murdered relatives.
On August 7 the Jews who had deviated from coming to the place of collections were searched everywhere. Pinsk was seized with terror. The next mass execution by shooting of Jews was organized near the village of Kozlyakovichi (approximately 2 km distance from Pinsk).
Sergey Nevar, the resident of the village of Kozlyakovichi, said: “We, boys, hid in the nearby forest 100-150 m from that place. We watched the group of people coming to the spot. Before the execution they “were consoled” be the rabbi. The shooting went on for 16-17 hours”.
The three deep graves were full of dead bodies. The SS soldiers filled the graves up with sand and had lunch right there. Local residents still remember that in those horrible days the field road from the village of Kozlyakovichi to Pinsk, which lied near the graves, was flooded with blood… Altogether 10 000 people were murdered for those three days in August 1941…
On April 1942 the ghetto for Jews was organized in Pinsk. No doubt, that the German occupation authorities took into account the mode of thinking of the Jewish population. To the opinion of the nazis, typical features of Jews from Western Belarus were obedience, eagerness to be subordinate and political passivity. But at the same time those features were considered to be rather dangerous
By the end of year 1942 the rest of Pinsk Jews and the Jews from the nearby villages were forced to move to the ghetto. They were allowed to take only some clothes and linen with them. Being in a hurry people forgot to take even the documents with them. Marauding was quite common in the houses left by the Jews: looters broke windows and doors. Officially Jewish property became the property of Pinsk administration.
Pinsk ghetto had rectangular borders, fenced in barbed wire. The borders of the ghetto did not follow the streets of Pinsk. Looking from outside it was difficult to notice the barbed wire as it was stretched behind the fronts of the houses, along the kitchen gardens. This allowed the Germans “to hide” the ghetto from Red Cross mission’s eyes.
35 126 square meter gave the floor space for 18 644 people (1, 8 m2 per person). Approximately 40 people were placed in each house. The Jews were not allowed to leave the territory of the ghetto without a special permit. Such permits were given to a considerable number of Jews, which worked at the factories of Pinsk.
In the ghetto Jews suffered of hunger, diseases and stealing. On October 27, 1942 Himmler signed the order to liquidate Pinsk ghetto. He considered it to be gangsterism-breeder in the region of the Pripyat marshes.
The order was fulfilled at once. On October 29 the ghetto was cordoned off.
10 000 people were murdered in one day. During the next four days the German soldiers combed the ghetto and forced 15 000 to come to the gathering point. The sick and the children were killed right there, in ghetto.
On November 2, 1942 the nazis left Pinsk. The ghetto did not exist any more…
We still do not know the exact number of the victims of Pinsk ghetto. The researches of this problem say this number varies between 18 000 and 30 000.
Holocaust and thousands of victims… World War II is a very painful part of Jewish history.

 
"Pinsk Jews consider it to be a duty to visit their native places"

Every second year on June 14 (the day of liberation of Pinsk from German aggressors) a delegation of Pinsk Jews from Israel visits Pinsk.
In 2001 they also came to Pinsk. The oldest member of the delegation was aged 101. Many members of the delegation were born in Pinsk at the beginning of last century. Everybody is an alive part of the history of Pinsk. To come for Belarus is not a cheap pleasure for them. The cost of their 4-days stay here is an equivalent of a fortnight in Paris if to stay at 5-star hotel including three meals a day. But Pinsk Jews consider it to be a duty to visit their native places. And those who can come - do it.
Hadashi Tiroshpuah (maiden surname Bergman), the ancestor of one of the most famous family of pre-war Pinsk told me, that it was her first and last visit to Pinsk - “very painful…” Being eight she was brought to Palestine, but she remembers her family ’s house in Kostyushko street (now Lenin street) and people, which surrounded her in her childhood. Tears sparkled in her eyes while she was speaking about that.
The guests from Israel visited the village of Motol, the town of Ivanovo and the places of mass execution by shooting of Pinsk Jews during World War II.
At the celebration in the city park, dedicated to the liberation of Pinsk from the nazis, the Jews from Israel did not seem to be aliens. Sasha Kaplan, his son and granddaughter, symbolizing the three generations of Jews, laid flowers to the eternal flame monument.
The official ceremony finished, but the Jews stayed at the memorial longer to make pictures and video. In Israel those pictures will become family relics to be looked at and to be shown to guests. One more peculiarity of Jewish visits to Pinsk is walking around with black-and-white old pictures in their hands to look for houses of their childhood...
Time… Memory… The visits of Israeli Jews to Pinsk have never been pompous. For them the most important thing is to touch their past without making fuss, as memory is a very personal thing.
Having spent three days in Pinsk they have left, but they will return. Their sons, grandsons and great-grandsons will come in case they are not able to do it.

 
 
Inna Demid is journalist in Pinsk and Lena Dikovitskaya, an artist and a member of Kalegium, are from Pinsk but for the moment leaving in Warsaw due to political repression of her family.

PS. The author does not consider this article to be scientific - this is just a personal view on the history of the Jewish issues in Pinsk. The author has used her own experience of work at the Museum of the Belorussian Polesye, the talks with old residents of Pinsk and also the literature:

• Aleksandr Grushevsky: “Pinsk Polesye: Historical essays”, 1903
• Golda Meyer: “My Life”, 1997
• E. S. Rosenblad, I. E. Elenskaya: “Pinsk Jews: 1939-1944”, 1997

 
Translation from Russian into English: Nadya Avsievich

More about Pinsk and Belarus:
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