The Minsk Ghetto, 1941–1944

Abstract

With germany‘s attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the third, final stage of Fascist Senocide in relation to the Jews began. To bring about ‘the final solution of the Jewish question’, the Jews of the USSR and then those of occupied Europe were condemned to death. The plan to exterminate the Jewish people was approved during preparations for the attack on the USSR. The Directives of the German Army dated 13 March 1941 on the special conditions for conducting the war in the East stated that in the Soviet Union the international conventions relating to prisoners of war and the civilian population would not be observed. This was followed by the Order on Commissars of 6 June 1941 which condemned to death Bolshevik commissars, communists and Jews.