[1][2] The subsequent creation of the ghetto was followed – over a year later – by the murder of the imprisoned Jewish population of Pińsk, totalling 26,000 victims: men, women and children.

[3] It was the second largest mass shooting operation in a single settlement to that particular date during the Holocaust,[note 1] after Babi Yar where the death toll exceeded 33,000 Jews.

The Babi Yar shootings were surpassed only by the Nazi Aktion Erntefest of 3 November 1943 in the Lublin district with 42,000–43,000 Jews murdered at once over execution pits,[5][6] dug specifically for this purpose.

[8] In the April 1919 Pinsk massacre, during the Polish–Soviet War, the Polish garrison summarily executed 35 Jewish men without due process on the suspicion of plotting a pro-Soviet counterattack.

[citation needed] In the subsequent decade the city grew to 23,497 inhabitants as part of the Polesie Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic.

[8] It was briefly declared the capital of the province in 1921 but a citywide fire resulted in the transfer of power to Brześć within months.

[citation needed] Under new anti-semitic regulations, Jews were forbidden to leave the city or shop in the market and were required to wear armbands with the Star of David.

[9] The Pińsk Ghetto's population swelled, with Jews deported en masse from all neighbouring settlements until food ran out.

According to the Nazi-issued final report, 17,000 Jews were killed during the insurgency, bringing the total to 26,200 victims before the ghetto's closure.