ABSTRACT
The Einsatzgruppen followed the German Army from the outset of the war; sometimes they moved together with it. In this way the Jews were trapped in their homes and were prevented from fleeing. The German Army moved with lightning speed. The village of Svir in the Vilno district was reached by 24 June 1941; Eyszyszki, in the Novogrodok district, on 23 June; Dereczyn on 27 June; Iwieniec and Lachowicz on 28 June; Kleck, in the eastern part of the district, on 29 June. The second series of aktzias began in Bielorussia in the spring of 1942 and continued until the annihilation of Western Bielorussian Jewry was completed in the fall of 1943. At the close of 1942 there remained in the area of the “Ostland” some 100,000 Jews, of whom about 30,000 were in Bielorussia — half being within the borders of Western Bielorussia.
