Pre-1939: Lenin, town, Łuninieć powiat, województwo poleskie, Poland; 1939–1941: raion center, Pinsk oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Rayon center, Gebiet Hansewitschi, Generalkommissariat Weissruthenien; post-1991: Zhytkavichy raen, Homel’ voblasts’, Republic of Belarus Lenin is located 94 kilometers (58 miles) east-northeast of Pinsk. The name “Lenin” derives from the last name of the former estate owner, Count Olel’kovich (1586), and is not related to the pseudonym of the Communist revolutionary V.I. Ul’ianov (Lenin).1 In early 1941, including refugees from Poland, around 2,000 Jews resided in Lenin. Little thought was given to evacuating the town, even though people were aware of Germany’s persecution of the Jews. Most people wanted to believe that the Red Army would stop and destroy the “Hitlerite army.” Only a few Jews succeeded in fleeing, as the Soviet border guards did not allow people across the former “western” border, fearing the infiltration of German spies.2 German...