Editing Brest, Belarus (section)

===World War II===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-121-0011A-23, Polen, Siegesparade, Guderian, Kriwoschein.jpg|thumb|260px|[[German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk]] at the conclusion of the [[Invasion of Poland]]. In the centre are Major General [[Heinz Guderian]] from the [[Wehrmacht]] and Brigadier [[Semyon Krivoshein]] from the [[Red Army]].]]

In early September 1939, the Polish government evacuated a portion of the Polish [[gold reserve]] from [[Warsaw]] to Brześć, and then further southeast to [[Śniatyn]] at the Poland-[[Romania]] border, from where it was transported via Romania and [[Turkey]] to territory controlled by [[Franco-Polish alliance (1921)|Polish-allied]] [[France]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Wróbel|first=Janusz|year=2002|title=Wojenne losy polskiego złota|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|issue=8-9 (19-20)|pages=55–58|issn=1641-9561}}</ref>

During the German [[Invasion of Poland]] in 1939, the city was defended by a small garrison of four infantry battalions under General [[Konstanty Plisowski]] against General [[Heinz Guderian]]'s [[XIX Army Corps|XIX Panzer Corps]]. After [[Battle of Brześć Litewski|four days of heavy fighting]], the Polish forces withdrew southwards on 17 September. The [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] began on the same day. As a result, the Soviet [[Red Army]] entered the city at the end of September 1939 following the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]'s Secret Protocol, and a joint [[German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk|Nazi-Soviet military parade]] took place on 22 September 1939. While Belarusians consider it a reunification of the Belarusian nation under one constituency (the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]] at that time), Poles consider it the date when the city was lost.

During the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Soviet occupation]] (1939–41), the Polish population was subject to arrests, executions and mass deportations to [[Siberia]] and the [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic]]. The largest Soviet prison in the Byelorussian SSR was located in the city, and its prisoners were mostly Poles, including politicians, landowners, officers, educators, priests, both locals, including pre-war Polish mayor Franciszek Kolbusz, and people arrested in other places, including former Prime Minister of Poland [[Leopold Skulski]], and Jews fleeing the Germans from western and central Poland.<ref name=sk>{{cite web|url=https://przystanekhistoria.pl/pa2/teksty/74339,Sowieckie-wiezienie-w-Brzesciu-nad-Bugiem-w-latach-1939-1941.html|title=Sowieckie więzienie w Brześciu nad Bugiem w latach 1939-1941|website=Przystanek Historia|author=Sławomir Kalbarczyk|language=pl|date=14 September 2024|access-date=1 January 2025}}</ref> The prison had poor conditions, causing the spread of [[lice]] and [[bed bug]]s, and brutal interrogations, even resulting in two confirmed cases of suicide.<ref name=sk/> In February 1940, there was a mass prison escape in which first 28 people managed to escape, and then Soviet soldiers opened fire on further escapees.<ref name=sk/> Many prisoners were eventually moved to a prison in [[Minsk]].<ref name=ez>{{cite magazine|last=Ziółkowska|first=Ewa|year=2009|title=Kuropaty|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|issue=1–2 (96–97)|page=51|issn=1641-9561}}</ref> It is suspected that they were murdered by the Soviets in the [[Katyn massacre]] in 1940.<ref name=ez/>

{{further|Brześć Ghetto|The Holocaust in the Brest District}}
[[File:Kuibyshev street (ul Dluga) - Holocaust memorial 1b.jpg|thumb|Holocaust memorial]]
On 22 June 1941, Brest Fortress and the city were attacked by [[Nazi Germany]] on the first day of [[Operation Barbarossa]], [[Nazi Germany]]'s invasion of the [[Soviet Union]]. The fortress [[Defense of Brest Fortress|held out for six days]]. Nearly all its Soviet army defenders perished. The Germans placed Brest under the administration of the ''[[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]]''. The remaining municipal Jewish population (about 20,000) was sequestered in the [[Brześć Ghetto]] established by the German authorities in December 1941 and later murdered in October 1942. Only seven Jews survived the Nazi executions.<ref name=Browning/>

The Germans also operated a Nazi prison, a [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] "education" camp for men and women, a forced labour camp for Jews, the AGSSt 3 prisoner-of-war assembly center, the Dulag 314 transit [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|POW camp]] for [[Italian Military Internees|Italians]], the Stalag 397 POW camp for Soviet POWs and a subcamp of the Stalag 360 POW camp in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=545|title=Gefängnis Brest-Litowsk|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=30 September 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=543|title=Arbeitserziehungslager Brest|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=30 September 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=544|title=Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden Brest|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=30 September 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=39, 117, 363, 385–386|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref>

The [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]], including the Polesie District of the [[Home Army]], was active in the city.

The city was re-occupied by the [[Red Army]] on 28 July 1944, and eventually annexed from Poland the following year.