Grodno Ghetto was created by Nazi Germans in November 1941, in the city of Hrodna (Grodno), which was part of the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland, and subsequently incorporated by the Soviets into the Belarusian SSR. Hrodna (German: Garten) was annexed by the Nazis to the Bezirk Bialystok district of East Prussia in the aftermath of the German attack on the Soviet Union.

The Ghetto consisted of two interconnected units about 2 km apart. The Ghetto One was established in the Old Town district, around the synagogue (Shulhoif), with some 15,000 Jews crammed into an area less than half a square km. The Ghetto Two was created in the Slobodka suburb, with around 10,000 Jews incarcerated in it. Ghetto Two was larger than the main ghetto but far more ruined.

The reason for the split was determined by the concentration of Jews within the city and less need to transfer them from place to place. Their situation however, had considerably worsened with the ghettos' locations highly inadequate in terms of sanitation, water and electricity. The separation of the ghettos would later enable the Germans to exterminate their population with greater ease. The larger ghetto was liquidated a year-and-a-half after its establishment, and the smaller one a few months earlier.

Grodno or Hrodna (Belarusian: Гродна [ˈɣrodna]; Lithuanian: Gar̃dinas Russian: Гродно [ˈɡrodnə]) is a city in Belarus. It is located on the Neman River (Нёман), close to the borders of Poland and Lithuania (about 20 km and 30 km away respectively). It has 327,540 inhabitants (2009 census). It is the capital of Grodno Region (voblast) and Grodno raion (district).

The following rivers flow through the city: the Neman River, the Łasasianka River and the Haradničanka River with its branch the Jurysdyka River.

The modern city of Grodno originated as a small fortress and a fortified trading outpost maintained by the Rurikid princes on the border with the lands of the Baltic tribal union Yotvingians. Its name derives from the Old East Slavic verb gorodit', i.e., to enclose, to fence (see "grad" for details).

Mentioned in the Primary Chronicle under 1127 as Goroden' and located at a crossing of numerous trading routes, this Slavic settlement, possibly originating as far as the late 10th century, became the capital of a poorly attested but separate principality, ruled by Yaroslav the Wise's grandson and his descendants.

Dr. Felix Zandman, Ph.D. (May 7, 1927 – June 4, 2011) was the founder and chief technology officer of Vishay Intertechnology – one of the world's largest providers of electronic components. From 1946 to 1949 he studied in France at the University of Nancy physics and engineering. In parallel, he was enrolled in a Grande École of engineering E.N.S.E.M (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Electricité et de Mécanique). He received a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne as a physicist on a subject of photoelasticity. He was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1962.

Felix Zandman was born in Grodno, Belarus, then in eastern Poland. In October 1941, at the age of 14 he arrived at the Grodno Ghetto (liquidated at the end of 1942) with parents, sisters, grandparents and many other relatives. He survived the Holocaust thanks to a family of Polish Righteous Jan and Anna Puchalski who hid him and his uncle for 17 months. Their main hiding place was a dugout 170 cm long, 150 cm wide and, only 120 cm tall.