German authorities established a ghetto in Minsk in July 1941, shortly after German forces occupied the city. About 80,000 Jews were initially crowded into the ghetto, with 24,000 more people deported there later that year. In August 1941, the Germans began mass killing operations against the residents of the ghetto.
![Tsila Botvinnik, a Jewish partisan active in the Minsk ghetto underground against the Germans. [LCID: 25169]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c0893fd5-754e-49ae-a7d6-d867c343997a.jpeg "Tsila Botvinnik, a Jewish partisan active in the Minsk ghetto underground against the Germans. [LCID: 25169]")
Tsila Botvinnik, a Jewish partisan active in the Minsk ghetto underground against the Germans. Minsk, Soviet Union, between 1941 and 1944.
Item ViewWe would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors.
![Mikhael Guebelev, organizer of the underground group in the Minsk ghetto. [LCID: 25168]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c538e10d-bf16-4e4b-8a42-9e4a32862262.jpeg "Mikhael Guebelev, organizer of the underground group in the Minsk ghetto. [LCID: 25168]")
![German soldiers parade three young people through Minsk before their execution. [LCID: 73742]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/e648a21c-251b-4d74-9e4c-a83594bcf0b5.jpg)