IHMEC.
By 1900, the Russian Empire contained the largest Jewish community in the world, over 5 million people.
IHMEC.
National Digital Archives Poland.
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union with over 3 million soldiers, one of the largest military invasions in modern history.
National Digital Archives Poland.
Three thousand men of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) entered Soviet territory behind the German army. Their mission was to murder Jews, Soviet officials, political opponents, and Roma and Sinti as part of the “War on Judeo-Bolshevism.”
USHMM: courtesy of Herman Lewinter.
In the German-occupied Soviet territories, sites of forced labor and murder included Pechora, Klooga, Bogdanovka, Mogilev-Podolsky, Domanevka, and Janowska.
USHMM: courtesy of Herman Lewinter.
Image courtesy of Blavatnik Archive Foundation.
Around 17 million Soviet citizens were evacuated to the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Volga region.
Image courtesy of Blavatnik Archive Foundation.
IHMEC: courtesy of Lisa and Aron Derman.
In the German-occupied Soviet territories, Jews received no organized assistance from any specific local group or anti-German underground movement.
IHMEC: courtesy of Lisa and Aron Derman.
IHMEC.
20,000 –30,000 Jews joined resistance groups in Eastern Europe, joining hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish partisans fighting the Germans.
IHMEC.
USHMM: courtesy of Belarusian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography.
In the Soviet territories, the Red Army discovered mass killing across a vast area.
USHMM: courtesy of Belarusian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography.
