Operation Erntefest

harvest home

'Erntefest' was a German pair of operations ('Erntefest I' and 'Erntefest II') by a combined force of Sicherheitsdienst and police personnel, as well as SS troops of the Kampfgruppe 'von Gottberg', under the command of SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Curt von Gottberg against so-called partisans (largely Jews and other 'undesirables') in the Belorussian region of the German-occupied western USSR (18/26 January and 28 January/9 February 1943).

'Erntefest I' of 18 January targeted the area to the east of the rail line linking Minsk and Slutsk, and resulted in the deaths of 1,975 persons, and the same forces were used in 'Erntefest II' of 24/28 January, which targeted the area to the west of the rail line linking Minsk and Slutsk, and resulted in the deaths of 2,325 persons.