The order to establish the ghetto in Minsk�34 streets and alleys plus the Jewish cemetery�was given on July 20, 1941. Jews were brought to the ghetto from Slutzk, Dzerzhinsk, Cherven, and other localities in the vicinity of Minsk. Jewish men and women who had married non-Jews were also taken to the ghetto, as were their children. In all, the ghetto population climbed to 100,000.
On September 3, the first pilot group of people�600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 other prisoners, selected among those who had fallen ill�was put to death at Auschwitz by means of Zyklon B gas. The initial attempts failed; the intended victims did not die as had been planned. They had to be taken out and made to wait until the technical flaws were corrected. Then, they were led back to the cells and killed in accordance with the plan.
The Jews of Kovno who survived the violent rampage that accompanied the occupation of this town on June 24 were given a month to move to two ghetto districts in Slobodka, on either side of the main street�the “large ghetto” and “small ghetto.” The area was encircled with barbed wire and heavily guarded, including German soldiers stationed at the gates. Some 29,760 Jews lived in the sealed ghetto before mass murder operations began in August.
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