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Vitebsk Ghetto or Witebsk Ghetto was a short-lived
October 8: Vitebsk Ghetto liquidated; more than 16,000 Jews killed
via
VITEBSK AND THE HOLOCAUST
* Vitebsk Holocaust locations in Belarus Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Belarus World War II sites in Belarus {{WWII-stub
Vitebsk Ghetto or Witebsk Ghetto was a short-lived ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
in the town of Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
. It was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union; immediately after the Nazis took control of the town on 11 July 1941.
Approximately 16,000 Jews lived in the ghetto. In October, the Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
administrators declared that the poor conditions in the ghetto created a health hazard for local inhabitants and that an epidemic had started in the ghetto; in fact, this declaration was a pretext to move and massacre the Jews. Less than three months later, on 8 October 1941, the Nazis started a massacre of the Vitebsk Jews, which ended on 11 October with the deaths of most of the ghetto's inhabitants (sources vary as to the exact number). Peter Longerich ''Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews'' 2010 p.223 "Thus, to name only the most significant places, the Vitebsk ghetto was cleared between 8 and 10 October and 4090 Jews were shot (according to reports by Einsatzkommando 9)" - but another source puts this 4,090 at December 1941 Many bodies were disposed in the nearby Vitba river.
See also
* The Holocaust in BelarusReferences
Further reading
*External links
October 8: Vitebsk Ghetto liquidated; more than 16,000 Jews killed
via
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
VITEBSK AND THE HOLOCAUST
* Vitebsk Holocaust locations in Belarus Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Belarus World War II sites in Belarus {{WWII-stub