GOMEL’ (GOMEL’ OBLAST’)

Pre-1941: Gomel’, city, raion and oblast’ center, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Gomel, Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Homel’, raen and voblasts’ center, Republic of Belarus Gomel’ is located 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Minsk. In 1939, Jews numbered 40,880 (27.3 percent of the city’s total population). In the first weeks of the war, the population of Gomel’ benefited from the fact that German forces only occupied the city about two months after the start of the invasion, and many people managed to evacuate in the interim. By the time the Germans took the city on August 21, 1941, about 80,000 inhabitants had fled, but some 4,000 Jews remained (about 9 percent of the pre-war total). After occupying Gomel’, the Germans set up a temporary military administration. During August and September 1941, they established branches of the Security Police in Gomel’ and other towns of the region. During the occupation, security forces in the city...