According to the 1939 census, more than 70 thousand Jews lived in the city, who made up a third of the townspeople. With the outbreak of hostilities, the number of Jews increased due to refugees to 100 thousand.

The city was occupied on June 28, 1941. In the first days after the capture of the city, executions of Jews began. The Nazis killed several thousand people. A few days after the beginning of the occupation, an order appeared on the indemnity, which the Jews were to pay in money and precious metals. A Judenrat was also created, which had three chairpersons by October 1943.

The Nazis conducted a registration of the working-age Jewish population and introduced a number of restrictive measures. In particular, Jews could not change their place of residence and receive a salary in money. Their labor could only be paid with food. During the occupation, the number of prohibitive measures increased. Jews were forbidden to visit public places, greet non-Jews, wear a headdress in the presence of Nazis, etc.

On July 20, 1941, an order was issued that Jews should move to the ghetto territory. The whole process took five days. The invaders created one of the largest Jewish ghettos in Europe and the second, after Lvov, in the occupied territories of the USSR. It occupied about 2 km2 and occupied the territory of more than 30 Minsk streets. By September 1941, more than 100 thousand people were in it. The ghetto was of a closed type with two exits in the area of ​​Opanasenko and Ostrovskogo streets.

In addition to the main ghetto, which researchers call the "Big"; from October 1943 to June 1944, there was a so-called "Small" ghetto. It was located in the area of ​​the Minsk radio plant named after Molotov. In addition, from November 1941 to September 1943, the Nazis created the so-called "Sondergetto" in the city, which received the informal name "Hamburg", since it contained Jews brought from Europe.

The Nazis had no opportunity to destroy the huge ghetto in one aktion. Therefore, they carried out pogroms at intervals of several months. Most of them had one scenario: the able-bodied were taken to forced labor, and at that time, those who remained in the ghetto were killed, gradually reducing the ghetto territory. Sometimes those who were able to work were not returned to the ghetto for several days in order to complete the aktion. For example, in July 1942 they were kept outside the ghetto for four whole days.

As a result, by the beginning of 1943, 6-8 thousand people remained in the ghetto. At the end of October 1943, the Minsk ghetto ceased to exist.