Pinsk, Belarus was founded in 1506 and was one of the five chief Jewish communities in Lithuania at the time. Fast forward many years to World War I, and Germany took over Pinsk. During this time, Jews were greatly affected in a negative manner. Food was hard to come by, Jews were being deported to Poland and disease was spreading fast. After WWI, from 1918-1920, Pinsk was then controlled by various territories including Ukraine, Soviet Russia and Poland. Eventually Pinsk was fully taken over by Poland. During this time, it was very difficult for Jews to find jobs. The few jobs they could get were butchers, tailors and tradesmen. Jews in Pinsk considered themselves to be religious, but their faith would be tested in future years. On July 4th, 1941, the Nazis invaded Pinsk killing 11,000 Jews and throwing their corpses into pits. On May 1, 1942, a ghetto was made and more than 10,000 Jews were forced to live there. A few months later around 10,000 Jews living in the ghetto were shot and killed. The town of Pinsk was created and originally supportive of Jews. However, sadly tragedy struck when various nations took over and they were mistreated due to the overwhelming hatred of the Jewish people.