Resistance in the Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism

by Barbara Epstein

Drawing from engrossing survivors' accounts, many never before published, The Minsk Ghetto 1941-1943 recounts a heroic yet little-known chapter in Holocaust history. In vivid and moving detail, Barbara Epstein chronicles the history of a Communist-led resistance movement inside the Minsk ghetto, which, through its links to its Belarussian counterpart outside the ghetto and with help from others, enabled thousands of ghetto Jews to flee to the surrounding forests where they joined partisan units fighting the Germans. Telling a story that stands in stark contrast to what transpired across much of Eastern Europe, where Jews found few reliable allies in the face of the Nazi threat, this book captures the texture of life inside and outside the Minsk ghetto, evoking the harsh conditions, the life-threatening situations, and the friendships that helped many escape almost certain death. Epstein also explores how and why this resistance movement, unlike better known movements at places like Warsaw, Vilna, and Kovno, was able to rely on collaboration with those outside ghetto walls. She finds that an internationalist ethos fostered by two decades of Soviet rule, in addition to other factors, made this extraordinary story possible.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, Judaism

373 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2008

Reviews

[Ellie Midwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Epstein was my go-to source when I was doing research for one of my novels and I really can’t thank her enough for writing such a detailed and well-researched account of events that took place in the Minsk Ghetto. There are very few books written on the subject and this fact makes Ms. Epstein’s study even more valuable. She begins by drawing parallels between the Minsk Ghetto and other different ghettos situated in the territory of the German-occupied USSR and explains why the Minsk one was so different. Unlike many other Soviet republics, Byelorussia joined the Soviet Union voluntarily and, as a result, there were hardly any traces of nationalism left when it came to its population, unlike in Ukraine and the Baltic states. Gentiles and Jews considered themselves “Soviet people” and it was this approach that made the forming of the underground possible which later saved so many Jewish lives. I was amazed to learn about the risks Byelorussian gentiles took to save Jewish lives, and how they positively refused to participate in any violent actions, incited by the SS and directed at the Jewish population.
The forming of the underground, the first partisan formations, the inner organization of the ghetto and Sonderghetto (the German ghetto within the ghetto) - every chapter, based on survivors’ accounts and historical documents, is a wealth of information. I really can’t recommend it highly enough. A very well written and important study.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent work of scholarship on a neglected topic. Little has been written about the Holocaust in Belarus, and even less is available in English. Yet in many ways, the Holocaust in Belarus is unique: unlike the rest of Eastern Europe, the general population of Belarus was on the whole very sympathetic of and helpful towards the Jews. The author attempts to answer the question as to why this was, and to tell the fascinating story of the Minsk Ghetto and the resistance movement within. She does very well on both counts.

The Minsk Ghetto leaked like a sieve, with people constantly going in and out: by the time it was liquidated, 10,000 of its residents had escaped and joined partisan groups in the forest, and when you considered that only about 1/4th to 1/3rd of escapees made it to the partians, that means many more escaped the ghetto, and the population wasn't terribly large to begin with. That detail alone has a story behind it -- and there were many other fascinating facts and figures and tales to tell. I found the book absorbing and engaging in addition to being well-researched. I would love to read more of this author's work.

[Adam Wasserman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A generation of young Americans grew up with the impression that World War II had been mostly a battle between the Nazis and Western democracy, exemplified and led by the United States, with the Soviet Union playing some vaguely defined marginal role. The Holocaust, according to this view, took place in Germany and Eastern Europe, meaning mostly Poland and Lithuania, but because the Soviet peoples languished under another sort of evil rule, whatever happened there during the war was too confusing to think about. In the context of a worldview that defined Nazism and Communism as two sides of the same totalitarian evil, there was little room for stories of Jews whose resistance to fascism consisted of fighting with Soviet-aligned partisan forces. Within the mainstream Jewish arena in the United States there was even more resistance to such stories. In the postwar years Jews had entered public life in the United States on the basis of an implicit promise of loyalty to the United States, which was understood to mean absolute support for American Cold War policies. The last thing that leaders of the Jewish mainstream wanted to be reminded of was the close if conflicted relationship between Jews and Communism in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union and the occupied Soviet territories, before and during the war.”

[Mark B. Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that looks into resistance to the Holocaust beyond just the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and looks at what the Jews did to survive from the Minsk Ghetto. A thoughtfully researched treatise on what has been, up to know, a far less recognized area of desperate survival against the atrocities of the Holocaust. Highly recommend!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that explains with many interviews and painstaking research about the plight of the Jews in Minsk during the Second World War. (full disclosure- Barbara is a third cousin who I just met in person last year)

For those interested in this topic, this book is top notch.