# Brest <table class="place-meta"> <tr><td>Hebrew / Yiddish</td><td dir="rtl">בריסק (Brisk; Brisk d'Lita)</td></tr> <tr><td>Local name(s)</td><td>Brest (Belarusian/Russian); Brześć nad Bugiem, Brześć Litewski (Polish); Berestye</td></tr> <tr><td>Region (today)</td><td>Brest Region, Belarus</td></tr> <tr><td>Coordinates</td><td>52°06′N 23°42′E</td></tr> </table> <table class="place-meta place-eras"> <tr><th>Era</th><th>Town name</th><th>Country / jurisdiction</th></tr> <tr><td>to 1795</td><td>Brześć Litewski</td><td>Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth</td></tr> <tr><td>1795–1918</td><td>Brest-Litovsk</td><td>Russian Empire (Grodno Governorate)</td></tr> <tr><td>1919–1939</td><td>Brześć nad Bugiem</td><td>Second Polish Republic (capital of Polesie Voivodeship)</td></tr> <tr><td>1939–1941</td><td>Brest</td><td>Soviet Union (Byelorussian SSR)</td></tr> <tr><td>1941–1944</td><td>Brest-Litowsk</td><td>Nazi Germany (Reichskommissariat Ukraine / Bezirk Bialystok area)</td></tr> <tr><td>1944–1991</td><td>Brest</td><td>Soviet Union (Byelorussian SSR)</td></tr> <tr><td>present</td><td>Brest</td><td>Belarus — Brest Region</td></tr> </table> ## Overview Brest — known in Jewish tradition as **Brisk** (Brisk d'Lita) — was one of the great centres of Lithuanian Jewry, home to the Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty and the "Brisker" method of Talmud study. In 1936 Jews numbered about 21,500, some 41% of the city's population. Under interwar Poland it was Brześć nad Bugiem, capital of Polesie Voivodeship; it passed to the USSR in 1939 and was seized by Germany in June 1941. On the night of 10–12 July 1941 an Einsatzgruppe massacred about 5,000 Jewish men. A ghetto was established in December 1941, and around 15–18 October 1942 nearly all of its roughly 20,000 inmates were murdered — several thousand shot at the Brest Fortress, the remainder taken to the Bronna Góra extermination site and killed. Almost the entire community perished. Brest is today a Belarusian regional capital. <small>Sources: Wikipedia — Brześć Ghetto; Virtual Shtetl (sztetl.org.pl) — Brest history of community; USHMM — Brest Ghetto Passport Archive; JewishGen — Brest.</small> ## People with events here | Person | Event | | --- | --- | | [[Azryl Gecel Spitz (b.1924)]] | Died ~1941 | | [[Perla Spitz (b.1917)]] | Died ~1941 | | [[Szmul Spitz (b.1919)]] | Died ~1941 | | [[Fajga Fajnberg (b.1883)]] | Died ~1942 | | [[Avraham Luria (d.1521)]] | Born 1465, Died 09/16/1521 | | [[Yechiel Luria (4)]] | Died ~1480 |