• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of the Brest Ghetto
A memorial to the approximately 20,000 murdered Jews of Brest (also known as: Brest-Litovsk, Polish: Brześć nad Bugiem) was dedicated in 1992 on initiative of the local Jewish community.
Image: Brest, end of June 1941, Destroyed power station, Belaruski dzyarshaŭny muzey gistoryi Vyalikay Ajtchynnay Vayny
Brest, end of June 1941, Destroyed power station, Belaruski dzyarshaŭny muzey gistoryi Vyalikay Ajtchynnay Vayny

Image: Brest, August 2004, Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust at the site of the former ghetto, Stiftung Denkmal
Brest, August 2004, Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust at the site of the former ghetto, Stiftung Denkmal
Before the Second World War, around 20,000 Jews lived in then-Polish Brest, situated on the shore of the Western Bug, making up about forty per cent of the population. On September 22, 1939, the Red Army took the city; on June 23, 1941, it was occupied by the German Wehrmacht.
The first large murder operation in Eastern Poland (what is today Belarus) took place in Brest between July 7 and 13, 1941: police battalion 307 arrested 4,000 Jewish men, took them to excavated pits and shot them.
Until mid-December 1941, the SS established two ghettos in which many Jews died of hunger and diseases. Most of the ghetto residents had to perform forced labour.
On October 15, 1942, the »liquidation« of the ghettos began: constabulary, Polizeikompanie Nürnberg (police company), Schutzpolizei unit »Brest-Litowsk« (municipal police unit), and police battalion 310, as well as members of the Polish Schutzmannschaft (protective battalion) murdered up to 19,000 Jews from Brest and surrounding areas, who had been interned in the ghetto. Many were killed on the spot, around 15,000 were transported in cattle and freight trains to the extermination site Bronnaya Gora, which is around 110 kilometres outside of Brest. There, members of the police units shot all of the Brest Jews in previously excavated pits.
Image: Brest, end of June 1941, Destroyed power station, Belaruski dzyarshaŭny muzey gistoryi Vyalikay Ajtchynnay Vayny
Brest, end of June 1941, Destroyed power station, Belaruski dzyarshaŭny muzey gistoryi Vyalikay Ajtchynnay Vayny

Image: Brest, August 2004, Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust at the site of the former ghetto, Stiftung Denkmal
Brest, August 2004, Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust at the site of the former ghetto, Stiftung Denkmal
The Jewish community of Brest had about 20,000 members before the war. Presumably all of the Jews from Brest perished in the murder operations of the German police units or due to the inhuman conditions in the ghetto. Several sources estimate the number of victims to be around 25,000.
Image: Brest, 1942, Jews before being deported from the ghetto, Yad Vashem
Brest, 1942, Jews before being deported from the ghetto, Yad Vashem

The memorial was dedicated in 1992, on initiative of the Jewish community of Brest, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liquidation of the ghetto. The memorial stone is located on the site of the former ghetto.
Image: Brest, around 2004, Memorial plaque for the Holocaust victims on the site of the former ghetto, Ilja Altmann
Brest, around 2004, Memorial plaque for the Holocaust victims on the site of the former ghetto, Ilja Altmann

Name
Pamjatnik pogibschim ewrejam na meste Brestskogo getto
Address
ul. Kuybisheva 126
224016 Brest
Phone
+375 (80) 296 361 750
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.