Editing History of Belarus (section)

===Belarus in World War II===
{{Main|German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II|The Holocaust in Belarus}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv N 1576 Bild-006, Minsk, Juden.jpg|thumb|Jews in the [[Minsk Ghetto]], 1941]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1970-043-52, Russland, bei Minsk, tote Zivilisten.jpg|thumb|Mass murder of Soviet civilians near [[Minsk]], 1943]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-137-1010-37A, Minsk, deutsche Truppen vor modernen Gebäuden.jpg|thumb|[[Wehrmacht|German troops]] in [[Minsk]] during their [[German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II|occupation]] of the city, August 1941]]
When the Soviet Union [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] on September 17, 1939, following the terms of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]'s secret protocol, Western Byelorussia, which was part of Poland, is included in the BSSR. Similarly to the times of German occupation during World War I, Belarusian language and Soviet culture enjoyed relative prosperity in this short period. Already in October 1940, over 75% of schools used the Belarusian language, also in the regions where no Belarus people lived, e.g. around [[Łomża]], what was Ruthenization.<ref>Ruchniewicz, ''Stosunki...'', p254</ref> Western Belarus was sovietised, tens of thousands were imprisoned in [[Gulag]] camps, exiled and many were executed as "[[enemies of the people]]". The victims were mostly Polish and Jewish.<ref>[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/2605.html][[Jan T. Gross]]<span>, Revolution from Abroad</span></ref><ref>Franziska Exeler, "What Did You Do during the War?" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History'' (Fall 2016) 17#4 pp 805-835 examines behaviour World War II in Belarus under the Germans, using oral history, letters of complaint, memoirs and secret police and party reports.</ref>

After twenty months of Soviet rule, [[Nazi Germany]] and its [[Axis Powers|Axis]] allies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Soviet authorities immediately evacuated about 20% of the population of Belarus, [[NKVD prisoner massacres|killed thousands of prisoners]] and destroyed all the food supplies.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} Mironowicz, Eugeniusz (1999) ''Białoruś'', Trio, Warsaw, p. 136. {{ISBN|83-85660-82-8}}</ref> The country suffered particularly heavily during the fighting and the German occupation. Minsk was captured by the Germans on 28 June 1941. Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day Belarus territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941.

During World War II, the [[Nazism|Nazis]] attempted to establish a puppet Belarusian government, [[Belarusian Central Rada]], with the symbolics similar to BNR. In reality, however, the Germans imposed a brutal [[racism|racist]] regime, burning down some 9,000 Belarusian villages, deporting some 380,000 people for slave labour, and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians more. Local police took part in many of those crimes. Almost the whole, previously very numerous, Jewish populations of Belarus that did not evacuate were killed. One of the first uprisings of a Jewish [[ghetto]] against the Nazis occurred in 1942 in Belarus, in the small town of [[Lakhva]].

Since the early days of the occupation, a powerful and increasingly well-coordinated [[Belarusian resistance movement]] emerged. Hiding in the woods and swamps, the partisans inflicted heavy damage to German supply lines and communications, disrupting railway tracks, bridges, telegraph wires, attacking supply depots, fuel dumps and transports and ambushing German soldiers. Not all anti-German partisans were pro-Soviet.<ref>Strużyńska, ''Anti-Soviet conspiracy...'', pp859–860.</ref> In the largest{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} partisan sabotage action of the entire Second World War, the so-called [[Asipovichy]] diversion of 30 July 1943 four German trains with supplies and [[Tiger I|Tiger tank]]s were destroyed. To fight partisan activity, the Germans had to withdraw considerable forces behind their front line. On 22 June 1944 the huge Soviet offensive [[Operation Bagration]] was launched, Minsk was re-captured on 3 July 1944, and all of Belarus was regained by the end of August. Hundred thousand of Poles were expelled after 1944. As part of the Nazis' effort to combat the enormous [[Belarusian resistance during World War II]], special units of local [[collaborationist]]s were trained by the [[SS]]'s [[Otto Skorzeny]] to infiltrate the Soviet rear. In 1944 thirty Belarusians (known as [[Čorny Kot]] (''Black Cat'') and personally led by [[Michał Vituška]]) were [[airdrop]]ped by the [[Luftwaffe]] behind the lines of the [[Red Army]], which had already liberated Belarus during [[Operation Bagration]]. They experienced some initial success due to disorganization in the rear of the Red Army, and some other German-trained Belarusian nationalist units also slipped through the [[Białowieża Forest]] in 1945. The [[NKVD]], however, had already infiltrated these units. Vituška himself was hunted down, captured and executed, although he continued to live on in Belarusian nationalist [[hagiography]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The SS Hunter Battalions: The Hidden History of the Nazi Resistance Movement 1944-45 |author=Alexander Perry Biddiscombe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EeYhAQAAIAAJ&q=V.+I.+Rodko |publisher=Tempus |year=2006 |page=66/67 |isbn=0752439383}}</ref>

In total, Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population in World War II including practically all its intellectual elite. About 9,200 villages and 1.2 million houses were destroyed. The major towns of [[Minsk]] and [[Vitsebsk]] lost over 80% of their buildings and city infrastructure. For the defence against the Germans, and the tenacity during the German occupation, the capital Minsk was awarded the title ''[[Hero City (Soviet Union)|Hero City]]'' after the war. The fortress of [[Brest, Belarus|Brest]] was awarded the title ''[[Hero-Fortress]]''.