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Jews in Borisov, Belarus

Borisov is the center of the district of the same name in the Minsk region. It is located 70 kilometers from the Belarusian capital. The settlement was founded in the XII century. From the 13th century it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After 1596 - under the jurisdiction of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Jewish community in Borisov appeared in the 16th century. Thanks to trading operations with grain and timber, supplied to Latvia and the lands of the Northern Black Sea region, it was known as one of the most prosperous in Lithuanian lands. According to sources, in the 1770s there were 249 Jews in Borisov.

After the partition of Poland in the 1790s, Borisov became part of the Russian Empire. By 1805, the number of local Jews had risen to 1,046.

The community suffered during the Russian-French war of 1812 from the actions of the warring parties. Sources report that one of the local Jews was executed by the French for refusing to become a guide for the troops. Several more Jews were executed by Admiral Chichagov as they delivered misinformation provided by the French.

In the 1840s-1890s, the Jewish community of Borisov increased from 3.8 to 7.7 thousand people. According to the 1897 census, Jews made up more than 50% of the city's 15,000 population. By 1910, the number of the community exceeded 10.6 thousand people.

In Borisov at the beginning of the 20th century there were seven synagogues and prayer houses, a Talmud Torah, as well as male and female schools.

In 1920, the community suffered from a pogrom organized by Polish troops. In the 1920s, the Jewish youth of Borisov took an active part in the Bolshevik reforms. As a result of the outflow of the active population, the size of the community fell to 8.3 thousand people by the mid-1920s. Jews made up 32.3% of the city's population.

By the 1930s, in Borisov, the Soviet authorities had destroyed most of the community institutions and all Jewish educational institutions. Nevertheless, by 1939 the number of Borisov Jews again exceeded 10 thousand people, but their share among the local population decreased. Jews made up 20.3% of the local population.

In July 1941, the city was occupied by the Nazis. There was no organized evacuation. Moreover, there were many Jewish refugees in the city. At the end of July 1941, the invaders began to create a ghetto. In the process, 176 people were executed for resisting relocation. In August 1941, the Nazis executed more than 700 Jews on various occasions. In October, the Nazis carried out the first stage of the liquidation of the ghetto, killing 7,000 people. The final ghetto in Borisov was liquidated in August 1942.

According to 1989 data, there were 1.9 thousand Jews in the city. Ten years later, 565 Jews lived in Borisov.