The Holocaust in Kobryn District

The Holocaust in Kobryn District (Холокост в Кобринском районе) was the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews in the territory of the Kobryn District of the Brest Region by the occupying authorities of Nazi Germany and their collaborators from 1941 to 1944 during World War II, as part of the policy of the "Final Solution".[1]

From Administrative Order No. 1 of the Rear Area Commander of Army Group Centre General Max von Schenckendorff, dated 7 July 1941:[2]

“III. Distinctive signs for Jews

  1. All Jews residing in the occupied Russian territory and having reached the age of 10 must immediately wear on the right sleeve of their outer clothing a white band 10 cm wide with a Zionist star depicted on it, or a yellow armband of the same width.
  2. Jews must provide themselves with such armbands.
  3. It is strictly forbidden to greet Jews. Violators will be severely punished by the local commandant at their place of residence.”

Genocide of Jews in the district

The Kobryn District was fully occupied by German troops in July 1941, and the occupation lasted three years until July 1944. The Nazis incorporated the district into the territory administratively assigned to the Pinsk District of the General District of Volhynia-Podolia of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.[3][4]

All authority in the district belonged to the Sonderführer, the German head of the district. In all large villages, district administrations and police garrisons were established, largely composed of Ukrainian collaborators.[3][3]

To implement the policy of genocide and carry out punitive operations, units of the SS, Einsatzgruppen, the Secret Field Police (GFP), the Security Police and the Sicherheitsdienst, and the Gestapo arrived in the district immediately after the troops.[3]

The occupation authorities forbade Jews to remove the Yellow badge or Star of David identifying marks, to leave ghettos without special permission, to change residence within the ghetto, to walk on sidewalks, to use public transport, to be in parks and public places, or to attend schools; Jewish doctors were forbidden from private practice.[3]

Simultaneously with the occupation, the Nazis and their collaborators began the total extermination of Jews. “Actions” (a euphemism used by the Nazis for organized mass killings) were carried out repeatedly in many locations. In settlements where Jews were not killed immediately, they were confined in ghettos until complete extermination, and were used for heavy forced labor, where many died from exhaustion, starvation, and lack of medical care. The killings in the district were directed by the local head of the SD, Pichman.[3]

In carrying out the policy of Judenfrei, the Nazis made every effort to locate, capture, and kill even individual Jews. Some cases were documented: three Jews were tracked down and killed near the village of Zakalnechye, three near Bolota, and two on the Khabovichi–Kobryn road.[3]

In the spring of 1944, the Germans, attempting to conceal evidence of their crimes, forced prisoners of war to exhume the mass graves of murdered Jews near the Divin highway and burn the remains. This continued for several weeks, after which the prisoners were also killed and burned.[3]

During the occupation, virtually all Jews of the Kobryn District were murdered. The few who survived mostly later fought in Belarusian partisans units.[3]

The largest mass killings of Jews in the district took place in Kobryn and in the villages of Divin, Horodets (269 people), Patriki (200 people), Povitje (57 people), Imenin (180 people), and others.[3]

Ghettos

As part of the Nazi Final Solution, ghettos were established in almost all towns and settlements of Belarus with Jewish populations. In the Kobryn District, the occupiers created four ghettos.[5]

Horodets

The ghetto in the village of Horodets was liquidated in 1942. Jews were forced to wear yellow stars and were used for forced labor. On 26 July 1942, all remaining 269 Jews were murdered.[6]

In 2005, a memorial was erected at the site of the mass killing by relatives of the victims, on the outskirts of the village near the beginning of Gagarin Street.[6]

Divin

Divin was captured on 24 June 1941, and the occupation lasted three years and one month until 21 July 1944.

The Divin ghetto was established in October 1941. In late summer 1942 (or autumn 1941), the last 1,450 Jews were tortured and murdered.

In 1951, a memorial was erected at the burial site on the grounds of a metal goods factory.

Kobryn

Main article: Kobryn Ghetto

In the two ghettos of Kobryn (August 1941 – 14 October 1942), about 3,500 Jews were murdered.[7]

Rescue cases and "Righteous Among the Nations"

In the Kobryn District, three people were awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli memorial institution Yad Vashem:

  • Olga Chiruk (Marchuk) — for rescuing Raisa Polevaya in the village of Batchi.
  • Anna and Iosif Nazaruk — for rescuing Khinka Goldfarb in the village of Lyakhchitsy.

Memory

Incomplete lists of victims of the genocide of Jews in the Kobryn District have been published.

Memorials to the murdered Jews of the district have been erected in Horodets, Divin, near the Divin highway at execution sites, and in Kobryn.

References

  1. ^ "Kobryn, Belarus: A Tale of One City, the Holocaust, and a Family Secret Through Reading a Yizkor Book". The British and Irish Association for Holocaust Studies. 2025-02-07. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
  2. ^ Bohaŭ, U. S., ed. (2003). Pami︠a︡tsʹ--Sennenski rai︠o︡n. Historyka-dakumentalʹnyi︠a︡ khroniki haradoŭ i rai︠o︡naŭ Belarusi. Minsk: PK Palihrafafarmlenne. ISBN 978-985-6351-18-4.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kisjalëŭ, H. K., ed. (2002). Pamjacʹ: Kobrynski raën. Historyka-dakumentalʹnyja chroniki garadoŭ i raënaŭ Belarusi. Minsk: Belta. ISBN 978-985-6302-44-5.
  4. ^ "Kobryn, Belarus [Pages 378-399]". jewishgen.org. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
  5. ^ Šamjakin, Ivan Pjatrovič; Belorusskaja Sovetskaja Ėnciklopedija Imeni Petrusja Brovki, eds. (1990). Belarus' u Vjalikaj Ajčynnaj vajne: 1941 - 1945 ; ėncyklapedyja. Minsk. ISBN 978-5-85700-012-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ a b Al′tman, Il′â Aleksandrovič (2011). Holokost na territorii SSSR: ènciklopediâ. Moskva: ROSSPÈN. ISBN 978-5-8243-1463-2.
  7. ^ "Численность населения на 1 января 2024 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2023 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа". www.belstat.gov.by (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2026-03-19.

Sources

Books and articles

  • Pamyats. Kobryn District. Minsk: BELTA, 2002.
  • Mieczysław Kitajczuk. Los mieszkańców kobryńskiego getta // Burzliwe dzieje Polesia. Wrocław: Nortom, 2002.
  • "Kobryn". Jewish Virtual Library.
  • "Memoirs of residents of the Kobryn ghetto".
  • A. Martynov. In memory of Kobryn Jewry // Kobrinsky Vestnik, 1993.
  • A. Tatarenko. This happened in Kobryn, or a story of nobility and betrayal. Tel Aviv, 2002.
  • Directory of places of forced detention of civilians in occupied Belarus, 1941–1944.
  • The Holocaust on the territory of the USSR. Encyclopedia (2011).
  • I. Altman. The Holocaust and Jewish resistance in the occupied USSR.

See also

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