Soviet Belarus has been described as "the deadliest place on earth between 1941 and 1944".[23] One in three Belorussians died during World War II. The Holocaust was carried out near the towns where the population lived. Very few of the victims died in extermination centres like Auschwitz.[24] Most Soviet Jews lived in an area of Western Russia that was previously known as the Pale of Settlement.[25] The Wehrmacht was initially tasked with assisting the Einsatzgruppen.