International Jewish Cemetery Project
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies

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Alternate names: Pinsk [Rus, Bel, Yid], Pińsk [Pol], Russian: Пинск. Belarusian: Пінск. פּינסק-Yiddish/Hebrew. 52°07' N, 26°04' E, 100 miles E of Brest-Litovsk, 137.1 miles SSW of Minsk.Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), VIII, pp. 167-183: "Pińsk". See more yizkors for Pinsk.ShtetLink. JOWBR Landsmanshaft: Baron de Hirsch - De la Savane Cemetery, Montreal, Canada; JOWBR Landsmanshaft: Baron de Hirsch - De la Savane Cemetery, Montreal, Canada; JOWBR Landsmanshaft: Baron de Hirsch - De la Savane Cemetery, Montreal, Canada. Jews may have lived here since 1100s. Golda Meir's home town. Town images and links. [March 2009]

"On the eve of the First World War (1914), the number of Jews in the town reached 28,000 which translated into 72% of the city's overall population. During the first few days of the Polish occupation of the city (April 1919) 5 Nisan "Tarat", 35 of the Jewish community's public leaders were summarily executed without trial, and with the sole accusation that they were Bolsheviks. Their bodies were secretly buried in the old cemetery on Zavalna Street. This event shocked the entire modern world, and the United States sent an investigative team to Pinsk lead by the Minister-Morgentau. The monument, which should have been erected on this mass grave with the names of the victims who were murdered, does not exist at this infamous sight. There is only a recreation of said monument at the memorial for the Pinsk Jewish community at Kibbutz Gvat near the monument sight for those who perished during the Holocaust. On 27 October, 1942, an order was issued by the Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler, and it included the following: "I hereby issue the order for the destruction of the Pinsk Ghetto even though it has some economic advantages". … and after two days, Thursday, the 29th of October, just before dawn, the ghetto was surrounded by companies from the special destruction forces. For three days afterwards, the Jews of Pinsk along with members of the Judenrat were escorted just 5 kilometers from the town to the village of Dobrovolie where mass graves had already been prepared. They were murdered and buried there. … At this fateful mass gravesite, a memorial was erected in 1993 by the Association of the Jews of Pinsk, and …. Another 3 memorial tablets commemorating the Jewish victims were installed near the villages of Posenich [IVANIKI], (8,000 men), Kozlakovich (3,000 men), and next to the Jewish cemetery in Karlin (there is no memorial there) where the last 123 remaining Jews from the 'little ghetto' (mainly the shoemakers and tailors that filed private orders for the Germans) were exterminated on Christmas eve December 23, 1942. The Tablets' text is written in three languages: Belorussian, Hebrew and Yiddish." Source [November 2000]

See history at We Remember Jewish Pinsk [March 2009]

photos of massacre sites and memorials for 3000 Jews of the town on 6 August, 1941; more than 8000 Jews of the town on 7 August 1941 and of Jews, Gypsies, and partisans on 23 December 1942. photos of Holocaust memorial and cemeteries: Memorial at the village of Kozliekovich near Pinsk, where ca. 3000 Pinsk Jews were murdered on August 7, 1941. Memorial outside of Pinsk in Dobrovolia at the site of the murder of 18,000 Jews. Partisan memorial. [March 2009]

Old Cemetery: Zalnaya St. last used in 1920. Built over.

New Cemetery: Part was built over on what used to be called Laihishin, but today is Ercomayskaya St. Source: R. Jochanan Berman, Brooklyn, NY.

Cemetery photos. [February 2010]

Karlin Cemetery: no longer extant. Memorial in Pinsk, where the last remnants of Pinsk from the "small ghetto" were murdered on Dec. 23, 1942. photo and cemetery photos [March 2009]