The Red Army liberated Minsk on July 3, in what Moscow defined as "one of the most crucial victories of the war." Only a few of the 80,000 Jews who had inhabited Minsk before the war were still there upon the liberation. 60,000 had fled. They had managed to hide out during the final Aktion on October 21, 1943, in which the last 5,000 were taken to Maly Trostinets, where they were murdered.
