The Ghetto ‘Liquidations’ of 1942–43

Abstract

In contrast to the mass killings reported in detail by the Einsatzgruppen in 1941, much less is known about the ghetto ‘liquidations’ in 1942. In the areas under civil administration in iitWeißruthenien and western parts iitof Reichskommissariat Ukraine, however, the majority of Jews were killed during the ‘Second Wave’ in 1942 and 1943.¹ Moreover these were total ‘liquidations’. Only a few Jews were exempted from these so-called ‘actions’, usually to be killed themselves within a couple of months. A large proportion of the victims were women, children and the elderly. By the end of 1942 only a handful of ‘work ghettoes’ remained in these areas.