Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Пінск
Пинск
Pińsk
Pinsk
פינסק
Pinesk
The name was derived from the Pina River.
Pinsk held an important strategic location, between Navahrudak and Halych-Volynia, which fought each other for other Ruthenian territories.

Pinsk Пінск is one of the oldest Slavic settlements.
In 1097, Pinsk was first mentioned, cited as Pinesk, a town belonging to Sviatopolk of Turau.
Pinsk Пінск was the seat of Sviatopolk's descendants, util the mid-12th century.

Before the war, Pinsk Пінск was the center of the Karliner Chassidim.

From 1941 to 1943, Pinsk was occupied by Germany.
On Friday, July, 4, 1941, the German Army entered Pinsk Пінск.
The Germans passing through Listovsky Street, took 16 Jewish men from their homes, including Avraham and Zeev Neidich, who had returned from Palestine, claiming they were being taken them away to work.
They were were taken to the District Court House in Karlin, the German Army headquarters, and did nott return; they had been taken to the Lishche Woods, where they were shot and buried.
A few days later, the Germans introduced anti-Semitic decrees; bakeries were required to supply bread for the German Army, every piece of bread missing from the quota would result in the execution of ten Jews; Jews were prohibited from leaving town; Jews were prohibited from being on the streets after 18:00PM, or shopping in the marketplace: Jews, from small children to old men, were required to wear a white ribbon with a Yellow Star of David on the left arm, those who diobeyed this order were to be shot on the spot.
Jews were ordered to hand in their radios; any Jew found with a radio would be executed.
The Polish police, who were trained by the occupation forces, assisted the Germans in plundering, humiliating and denouncing Jews.
Later in July, the commander of Pinsk Пінск established a Judenrat, to act as a link between the commander and the Jews, and ensure compliance with the demands of the Germans, to pay salaries of those who worked for the Judenrat, and manage social services.
The Judenrat included:
* Benjamin Bokshtansky: Chairman, responsible for economic affairs
* Motl Minsky: Vice-Chairman, contact with the Germans
* Feinbron: Finance
* Goldman: Notary, legal affairs
* Cooper: Labor Department
* M. Eizenberg: supply
* Zilverblat: supply
* Meir Greenstein: supply

On Tuesday, August 5, 1941, the Germans orderd all men from eighteen to sixty years to report to work at the railway station, if not obeyed, 300 Jews arrested the night before would be shot.
8000 men were lined up in long columns of five people abreast, and force marched to Posenicz where they were shot.

On Thursday, April 30, 1942, 13 Iyar, 5702, the Germans ordered the creation of a ghetto in Pinsk Пінск, and just before Passover, the last Jewish refugees from towns in the area were brought to Pinsk Пінск.
Jewish workmen erected pillars and put up a barbed-wire fence around Zavalna and Listovska Streets, and towards Albrekhtovska Street at one end, and Luninyetska Street at the other.
In July, 1942, the Jews of the Brzesc Ghetto were killed, as well as the Jews of Janov., except for a few skilled craftsmen.
On July 25, 1842,, the Jews of Drohiczyn were slaughtered.
Before Yom Kippur, Jews from the nearby Pohost-Zagorodski were transferred to the Pinsk Пінск Ghetto.
On September, 2 or 3, 1942, the Jews of Lakhva rose up against the Germans, and succeeded in inflicting a number of German casualties.
On October 27, 1942, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction and obliteration of the Pinsk Пінск Ghetto.
At 04:30, October 28, 1942, the Pinsk Пінск Ghetto was sealed off.
In late October, 1942, most of Pinsk's Jews were transported from the Pinsk Пінск Ghetto and killed.
Ten thousand Jews were murdered in one day.

Famous people from Pinsk Пінск include:
* Simon Kuznets, 1971 Nobel laureate in economics
* Shlomo Lipsky, Israeli businessman
* Golda Meir, fourth prime minister of Israel, born in Kiev, and lived two years of her childhood in Pinsk Пінск
* Sir Isaac Shoenberg, electrical engineer born in Pinsk Пінск, was principal inventor of the first high-definition television system
* Izya Shlosberg, Jewish American artist,was born in Pinsk Пінск, and lived in Pinsk Пінск for 44 years
* Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel, was born in Motal, near Pinsk, and was educated in Pinsk Пінск