Pre-1941: Kopys’, town, Orsha raion, Vitebsk oblast’, Belorussian SSR; 1941–1944: Kopys, Rayon Orscha, Rear Area, Army Group Center (rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Mitte); post-1991: Orsha raen, Vitsebsk voblasts’, Republic of Belarus Kopys’ is situated about 22 kilometers (14 miles) south of Orsha. In 1939, the Jewish population of Kopys’ was 405, 9.9 percent of the total. The Germans captured the town on July 11–13, 1941, in the course of very heavy fighting (it was in this sector of the front that the XLVII and XXIV Motorized Army Corps of Panzer Group 2 had to force the crossing of the Dnieper River). Only a few local Jews escaped to the east before the Germans arrived. In the first half of August, a detachment of Einsatzgruppe B “liquidated seven [former Communist] functionaries in Kopys’ for alleged arson and plundering.”1 The Jews were required to wear distinguishing armbands and a yellow star on their backs as well. In December 1941, the German authorities resettled the Jews of K...