American Holocaust

[RZM]

102. Part of the reason for that

Was that the Soviets invaded and took possession of Eastern Poland in collusion with the Nazis in 1939. A couple months later, they officially annexed this land to the Ukrainain and Belorussian SSRs. I forget the exact number, but over 1 million Jews became Soviet citizens in this action. Most later died in the Holocaust.

From 1939-1941, the Soviets carried out a lot of repression in this area, most famously the Katyn massacre. But they also deported several hundred thousand people in to the Soviet interior in several mass operations in 1940 and 1941, often targeting entire families. One of these deportations specifically targeted Jews who had fled across the border from Nazi-occupied Poland, which automatically made them suspect. Though the victims didn't know it at the time, those who were deported had this to thank for their lives, since most of the Jews who remained in this area were killed in the wake of German invasion of the USSR in 1941.