BEREZINO

BEREZINO, small town in Mogilev disrtrict, Belorussian S.S.R., today Belarus. The Jews there suffered during the chmielnicki uprising in 1649. In 1702, during the Swedish campaign, the Jews were fined for failing to pay their post duties which had been imposed by the Polish Sejm (diet) in 1673. The community numbered 208 in 1766; 1,289 in 1847; and 3,377 in 1897 (69.3% of the total population). It suffered in 1920 when Berezino was on the front line between the Polish and Soviet armies. In 1926 there were only 1,565 (53%) Jews. They worked in cooperatives, with 20 families in a multinational kolkhoz (farm). The Jews numbered 1,536 in 1939. Berezino was occupied by the Germans on July 3, 1941. In August they murdered 150 Jews and on December 25–27 another 1,000 Jews, with most infants thrown alive into mass graves. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Yevrei v SSSR, 4 (19294). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jewish Life, S.V. (Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)