The Białystok Ghetto ( pl, getto w Białymstoku) was a
Nazi ghetto
Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Europe, German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small ...
set up by the German
SS between July 26 and early August 1941 in the newly formed
District of Bialystok within
occupied Poland
' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...
.
About 50,000 Jews from the vicinity of
Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
and the surrounding region were confined into a small area of the city, which was turned into the district's capital. The ghetto was split in two by the
Biała River running through it (see map). Most inmates were put to work in the
slave-labor enterprises for the German war effort, primarily in large textile, shoe and chemical companies operating inside and outside its boundaries. The ghetto was liquidated in November 1943.
Its inhabitants were transported in
Holocaust train
Holocaust trains were Rail transport, railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn#1939-1945: The Reichsbahn in the Second World War and the Holocaust, Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and Co ...
s to the
Majdanek concentration camp
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...
and
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
s. Only a few hundred survived the war, either by hiding in the Polish sector of the city, escape following the
Bialystok Ghetto Uprising, or by surviving the camps.
Background
Before World War II, the population of
Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
(with over 91,000 inhabitants according to 1931 census) was 43 percent Jewish. There were two Jewish cinemas in the city, several Jewish dailies, sports clubs, prominent political parties and a Jewish library with over 10,000 books. Cultural life was booming.
Białystok was overrun by the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
on September 15, 1939, during the German
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, and one week later handed over to the
Red Army attacking from the East, in accordance with the
German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. On November 1–2, 1939, the prewar
Białystok Voivodeship along with over half of the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
were
annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming part of the
Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
.
During the Soviet occupation, Jewish companies and shops were closed, and Jewish social, educational, and political institutions were considered illegal. In addition many Jewish and Polish "capitalists" were deported by Soviet authorities to Siberia.
Thousands of Jewish refugees flocked in from the
German zone of occupied Poland. The city remained in Soviet hands until June 1941.
Operation Barbarossa and German atrocities
![Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1979-113-12, Bialystock, Juden bei Straßenarbeiten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1979-113-12%2C_Bialystock%2C_Juden_bei_Stra%C3%9Fenarbeiten.jpg)
Nazi Germany attacked the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
) on June 22, 1941 and
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
took over Białystok on June 26–27. On the same day, the
Police Battalion 309
The Police Battalion 309 (''Polizeibattalion 309'') was a formation of the Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During Operation Barbarossa, it was subordinated to the German Army's 221st Security Division and deployed in Germ ...
arrived,
tasked with inflicting terror upon the Jewish community.
The first mass murder of Polish Jews was carried out during the so-called "Red Friday" of June 27, 1941,
claiming the lives of up to 2,200 victims.
The
Great Synagogue was splashed with petrol and set on fire with approximately 700,
up to 1,000 Jewish men locked in it; and burned down with a grenade thrown inside.
The killings took place inside the homes of the Jewish neighborhood and in the park, lasting until dark. The next day, some 20–30 wagon-loads of dead bodies were taken to new mass graves dug up on German orders along Sosnowa Street outside the city center.
Major Ernst Weis of Battalion 309 got drunk and later claimed to have known nothing about what had happened. The official report submitted by his officers to General
Johann Pflugbeil __NOTOC__
Johann Pflugbeil (24 August 1882 – 21 October 1951) was a German general during World War II. During 1941 and 1942, he commanded the 221st Security Division in the Army Group Centre Rear Area. Under Pflugbeil's command, the division to ...
of the
221st Security Division (Wehrmacht), to which the battalion was subordinated, was falsified.
The ''Aktion'' was followed by the murder of about 300 Jewish intellectuals who were trucked to the Pietrasze fields on July 3.
Battalion 309 left for
Białowieża
Białowieża ( be, Белавежа, Biełavieža) is a village (population 2,000 as of 2002) in Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship, Podlasie Province, in the middle of the Białowieża Forest, to which it gave its name. The village is some east of ...
, and was replaced by
Order Police Battalion 316 and
322
__NOTOC__
Year 322 ( CCCXXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probianus and Iulianus (or, less frequently, year 1075 ' ...
of
Police Regiment Centre
The Police Regiment Centre (''Polizei-Regiment Mitte'') was a formation of the Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During Operation Barbarossa, it was subordinated to the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and deployed in German-occupied ...
and were ordered to round up more Jews. On July 12–13, 1941, a mass shootings by the two battalions dubbed "Black Saturday" took place on the outskirts of Białystok.
It is estimated that over 3,000 Jews herded into the municipal stadium – visited by
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
Erich Julius Eberhard von dem Bach-Zelewski (born Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski; 1 March 1899 – 8 March 1972) was a high-ranking SS commander of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State" ...
himself – were taken away and killed in antitank trenches.
The total of over 5,500 Białystok Jews were shot in the first weeks of German occupation in the summer of 1941.
In addition to mass-murder operations carried out in the city, the new district became an early theatre of ''
Einsatzgruppen
(, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
'' operations as well. Each
death squad
A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...
followed an army group as they advanced east. Himmler visited Białystok on June 30, 1941 during the formation of the
District of Bialystok and pronounced that there is a high risk of Soviet guerilla activity in the area, with Jews being of course immediately suspected of helping them out.
The mission to destroy the "partisans" was assigned to ''Einsatzgruppe B'' under the command of
Arthur Nebe
Arthur Nebe (; 13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a German SS functionary who was key in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust.
Nebe rose through the ranks of the Prussia ...
; aided by ''Kommando SS Zichenau-Schroettersburg'' under
Hermann Schaper
Hermann Schaper (August 1911 – 2002), was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He was a Holocaust perpetrator responsible for atrocities committed by the ''Einsatzgruppen'' in German-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union and was convicted ...
, and ''Kommando Bialystok'' led by
Wolfgang Birkner
Wolfgang Birkner (27 October 1913 – 24 March 1945) was a German SS functionary and a The Holocaust in Poland, Holocaust perpetrator in World War II. Birkner served as the ''KdS Warschau'' (''Komandeur der Sicherheitspolizei'') in Warsaw followi ...
summoned from the
General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
on orders from the
Reich Security Main Office
The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...
.
In the early days of the German occupation, these mobile killing units rounded up and killed thousands of Jews in the district.
Ghetto history
Formation
The Ghetto was officially created on July 26, 1941, by the order of German military authorities. The transfer of Jews to a designated area was handled by the ''
Judenrat
A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every com ...
'' (formed on June 30). All Poles who lived there were ordered to move out. Up to three Jewish families were placed in single rooms divided by curtains. There were two gates leading out of the ghetto initially, one on Jurowiecka and one on Kupiecka street. The ghetto encompassed the streets of
Lipowa, Przejazd, Poleska and Sienkiewicza. It was closed from the outside on August 1, 1941, with 43,000 people trapped inside. The ''Judenrat'', composed of 24 Jews, held its first meeting on August 2, and set up 13 departments split into divisions. Ephraim Barash (or Efraim Barasz in Polish), a mechanical engineer age 49, was elected as an acting president. The Council was chaired by Rabi Gedalyah (Gedalia) Rosenman. The soup kitchens were set up, along with infirmaries, schools,
Jewish Ghetto Police
The Jewish Ghetto Police or Jewish Police Service (german: Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei or ''Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst''), also called the Jewish Police by Jews, were auxiliary police units organized within the Nazi ghettos by local ''Judenrat'' ( ...
stations, bathhouses, and other amenities. The ''Judenrat'' promoted hard work as key to survival. Its main obligation was to provide quotas of laborers for the Germans.
Within a brief period of time the Ghetto grew to over 50,000 Jewish captives. It was surrounded by a wooden wall topped by barbed wire, with three entrances manned by the Jewish Police overseen by the Germans. Textile and armament factories were established with the help of the ''Judenrat''. Food rations were strictly enforced.
First deportations
In September 1941 the Nazi authorities proclaimed that the number of Jews in Białystok was too large, and ordered their partial deportation to nearby Prużany (now
Pruzhany
Pruzhany ( be, Пружа́ны, ; russian: Пружаны, pl, Prużana, yi, פרוזשענע, Pruzhene) is a town in Brest Voblast, Belarus. Pruzhany is the center of the district in Brest Region, Belarus. Its population is about 18,500 people. ...
, Belarus). The ''Judenrat'' prepared the list of targets. Deportations began on September 18 and went on for a month. The weakest and the poorest Jews numbering over 4,500 were sent away, others bribed their way out of it, with exorbitant amounts of money paid to the ''Judenrat'' employees. By January 18, 1942 the number of the Council officials (of all levels) had grown to 1,600 and up to 4,000 in June, mainly because of special bonuses and vouchers received for meat, legumes, jam, soap, flour and large amounts of coal for the winter. At the same time, food rations for the overall population were reduced severely, first to 500 grams of bread per day, and then to 300 grams, resulting in rampant hunger.
In the words of survivor Riva Shinder, the ghetto became synonymous with "humiliating oppression, shootings
ndhangings." The smuggling of food from the outside was punished by death. In December 1941 a Jewish resistance organization was formed. It was led by Tadeusz Jakubowski and Niura Czerniakowska. Riva served as its secretary. They listened to radio broadcasts, wrote communiques, and operated a duplicating machine. They also carried out acts of sabotage in the factories.
Further deportations and uprising
![Białystpk ghetto last transport to Treblinka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Bia%C5%82ystpk_ghetto_last_transport_to_Treblinka.jpg)
On February 5–12, 1943, the first group of approximately 10,000 Białystok Jews were rounded up by the mobile battalions for the mass 'evacuation' of the ghetto. They were sent aboard
Holocaust train
Holocaust trains were Rail transport, railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn#1939-1945: The Reichsbahn in the Second World War and the Holocaust, Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and Co ...
s to their deaths at the
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
. Another 2,000 victims, too weak or sick to run for the wagons were shot on the spot.
Meanwhile, approximately 7,600 inmates were relocated into a new central transit camp within the city for further selection. Those fit to work were sent to the
Majdanek
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...
camp. In Majdanek, after another screening for ability to work, they were transported to the
Poniatowa concentration camp
Poniatowa concentration camp in the town of Poniatowa in occupied Poland, west of Lublin, was established by the '' SS'' in the latter half of 1941, initially to hold Soviet prisoners of war following Operation Barbarossa. By , about 20,000 Sov ...
, Blizyn, as well as Auschwitz labor and extermination camp. Those deemed too emaciated to work were murdered in Majdanek gas chambers. More than 1,000 Jewish children were sent first to the
Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...
ghetto in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
, and then to
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, where they were killed. Only a few months later, as part of
Aktion Reinhard
Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt (german: Aktion Reinhard or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government distric ...
, on August 16, 1943 the ghetto was raided by regiments of the German SS with Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian and Belorussian auxiliaries (''
Hiwis''), known as
Trawniki-men aiming at the ghetto's final destruction.
Faced with the final deportations, when all hope for survival was abandoned, the Jewish underground staged the
Białystok Ghetto Uprising
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
. In the night of August 16, 1943, several hundred Polish Jews began an armed insurrection against the troops carrying out the liquidation of the Ghetto.
Holocaust survivor and postwar historian
Szymon Datner
Szymon Datner (Kraków, 2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989, Warsaw) was a Polish historian, Holocaust survivor and underground operative from Białystok, best known for his studies of the Nazi war crimes and events of The Holocaust in the Biał ...
wrote: "The blockade of the ghetto lasted one full month and on September 15, 1943, after the last of the flames of resistance had been extinguished, the SS units retreated." The final stage of mass deportations commenced.
Szymon Datner
Szymon Datner (Kraków, 2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989, Warsaw) was a Polish historian, Holocaust survivor and underground operative from Białystok, best known for his studies of the Nazi war crimes and events of The Holocaust in the Biał ...
The Fight and the Destruction of Ghetto Białystok.
December 1945. Kiryat Białystok, Yehud. Only a few dozen Jews managed to escape and join various partisan groups, including Soviet ones, in the Białystok area. The
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
overran Białystok in August 1944.
During the ghetto's history, there were a number of Jewish escapes, as well as
rescue attempts by local Polish gentiles.
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...
who helped Białystok Ghetto's Jews included the Skalski family, the Smolko family the Burda family the Czyżykowski family,
and
Jan Kaliszczuk
List of Polish Righteous Among the Nations includes families and individuals recognised as Righteous Among the Nations for rendering rescue and assistance to Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust in Poland. , there are men and wome ...
.
Not all rescue efforts were successful, Henryk Buszko was among those murdered by the Germans for his rescue efforts.
Location and layout
The Ghetto was located in the north-western section of the historical center, roughly of nowadays Sienkiewicza District and some of Przydworcowe District. It was bordered by
Lipowa Street in the south, Sienkiewicza Street in the east and Poleska Street in the north. Following the heavy fighting in the Bialystok Ghetto Uprising, and the fighting with the Soviet Armed Forces, most of the ghetto original buildings were destroyed. More soever, even some of the streets totally disappeared and other streets layout was changed. On the ruins of several streets (Smolna, Chmielna, Górna) a block of flats built, the Sienkiewicza District.
Notes and references
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bialystok Ghetto
Poland in World War II
Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland
The Holocaust in Poland
World War II sites in Poland
World War II sites of Nazi Germany
Jewish resistance during the Holocaust