September 28: Russia continues to absorbed Baltic States, pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (signed August 23, 1938) which divided-up Poland between Germany and Russia.
Over the next 6 months, these ‘absorptions’ would include Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and parts of Bessarabia, Galicia, Belarus, and Bukovina. This added 2,170,000 Jews to Russia’s population of 3 million Jews. Russia would give some of the Baltic States only a vague semblance of independence which created resentment and prepared the way for their eventual welcoming of the Germans in June 1941. Around 1 million Jews were later killed in those areas, many of them by local special police who were active participants in their murder.