Pripyat Marshes massacres

Pripyat Marshes massacres
Part of the Holocaust
	The Pinsk Marshes (also called the Pripyat Marshes), the location of the massacres
Date	28 July – 29 August 1941 (or 31 August)
Location	Pinsk Marshes, Byelorussian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics, Soviet Union
Motive	Nazism
Target	Soviet civilians (particularly Jews)
Perpetrator	SS Cavalry Brigade; 162nd Infantry Division; 252nd Infantry Division;
Deaths	13,788 (phase one); 3,500 (phase two);
Property damage	Multiple villages completely destroyed; Turaw partially damaged

The Pripyat Marshes massacres (German: Prypyatsümpfe Säuberung) were a series of mass murders^[1] carried out by the military forces of Nazi Germany against Jewish civilians in Belarus and Ukraine, during July–August 1941. SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered these operations, which were carried out by units of the Wehrmacht (the regular armed forces) and the Waffen-SS. These units were ordered to kill as many Jews as possible, in a region in and around the Pripyat Marshes, comprising nine raions of the Byelorussian SSR and three raions of the Ukrainian SSR.

These massacres are considered to be the first planned mass murders of civilians carried out by Nazi Germany.^[2] At least 13,788 people were killed in phase one and 3,500 Jewish men and boys were killed in phase two.^[3] The principal means of execution employed was mass shootings, after the local populace had been rounded up. Other methods were also tried, including driving people into the swamps and drowning them, though this was largely ineffective owing to their shallowness.

Among others, the villages of Dvarets, Khochan', Azyarany, Starazhowtsy and Kramno, were completely destroyed by burning and Turaw was partially destroyed.

^ By the definition of Alexey Litvin, who considers that the previous definition of operation, given by V. Lazyebnikaw and V. Pase, "operation... against the encircled units of Red Army, partisans and local population", is overly generalized and so imprecise.
^ Cite error: The named reference ALitvin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Miller 2006, p. 309.

[1] By the definition of Alexey Litvin, who considers that the previous definition of operation, given by V. Lazyebnikaw and V. Pase, "operation... against the encircled units of Red Army, partisans and local population", is overly generalized and so imprecise.

[ALitvin-2] Cite error: The named reference ALitvin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[FOOTNOTEMiller2006309-3] Miller 2006, p. 309.

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