Belarus suffered proportionally greater losses in World War II than virtually any other occupied territory in Europe — conservative estimates place the death toll at a quarter of the pre-war population, with some oblasts losing far more. The German occupation lasted from summer 1941 until 1944, during which roughly 380,000 Jews were killed in what became one of the densest concentrations of Holocaust killing sites on the continent. The 2009 date places this issue at 65 years after liberation by Soviet forces, a commemorative interval Belarus has consistently marked with official coinage.
Belarus suffered proportionally greater losses in World War II than virtually any other occupied territory in Europe — conservative estimates place the death toll at a quarter of the pre-war population, with some oblasts losing far more. The German occupation lasted from summer 1941 until 1944, during which roughly 380,000 Jews were killed in what became one of the densest concentrations of Holocaust killing sites on the continent. The 2009 date places this issue at 65 years after liberation by Soviet forces, a commemorative interval Belarus has consistently marked with official coinage.