The ghetto in Grodno

During the interwar period Grodno a city in the western part of Belorussia was part of Poland, however, in September 1939 it was occupied by the Soviet forces and annexed to the Soviet Union, as part of the Ribbentrop – Molotov pact.



Grodno had one of the oldest and largest Jewish communities with numerous social and cultural institutions and was a well-known centre of Zionism, on the eve of the Second World War Grodno’s Jewish population was circa 25,000.



On the first day of Operation Barbarossa – the German name for the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans reached Grodno on 22 June 1941.



As soon as the Nazis entered the city, they forced all male Jews aged sixteen to sixty on forced labour, the following month eighty Jews belonging to the intelligentsia were murdered.



A Gestapo office (Nebenstelle) was established in Grodno dealing with Jewish affairs, initially headed by Kriminalsekretar Gross, and he was succeeded by Heinz Errelis, from December 1941.



Errelis had thirteen men under his command, including his deputy Schrott, other key Gestapo officers were Kurt Wiese, the commandant of Ghetto “A” and Otto Strebelow the commandant of Ghetto “B.” 



 

Jews forced into the Grodno ghetto

At the end of June 1941 a Judenrat was established with a membership level of ten people, headed by David Brawer, the headmaster of a local school.



As was the norm the German authorities imposed on the Jews of Grodno, all the usual restrictions, including registration, the marking of identity cards, the wearing of the Jewish badge from 30 June 1941.



On 18 September 1941 the Germans transferred the administration of Grodno from Belorussia to the district of Bialystok and annexed it in March 1942 to East Prussia, under the control of Gauleiter Erich Koch.



Whilst the Germans used the Jewish manpower for forced-labour from day one of its rule, the official decree was not issued until the 15 October 1941, which stated that males aged between fourteen to sixty and women aged fourteen to fifty-five were obligated to work.


Read the full article about Grodno here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/grodno.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org