Ghetto in Białystok

The ghetto in Białystok was established by the Germans on 26 July 1941. About 40,000–60,000 Jews from the city and nearby towns were imprisoned there. Closed on August 1, 1941, it was surrounded by a wall with three guarded entrance gates. It included the following streets: Kupiecka, Giełdowa, Żydowska, Piotrkowska, Różana, Nowy Świat, Książęca, Szlachecka, Polna, Kosynierska, Czysta, Żytnia, Białostoczańska, Biała, Jurowiecka, Wąska, Ciepła, Nowogrodzka, Smolna, Górna, and Fabryczna streets, as well as parts of Częstochowska and Grajewska.

The eastern and western parts of the ghetto were separated from each other by the valley of the Biała River. All residents aged 15 to 65 were employed to perform forced labor in plants managed by the Germans. About 2,000 people were employed by the Bialystok Judenrat in numerous workshops and small factories, producing fabrics and weapons for the occupant's needs.

At the turn of September and October 1941, about 5,000–6,000 Jews were transported to the ghetto in Pruzhany (now Belarus), where they died in January 1943. The liquidation of the ghetto in Białystok began in February 1943. On 5-12 February 1943, the first "action" was carried out, during which 1-2 thousand people were shot on the spot, and about 10 thousand were transported from the Fabryczny (Poleski) station to the German death camp in Treblinka. On 13 March, 1943, 1,148 people from the liquidated ghetto in Grodno were relocated to the Białystok ghetto. During the liquidation action, members of the resistance movement began feverish preparations to undertake armed resistance in the event of subsequent "deportations."

On the night of 15-16 August, the ghetto was surrounded by German soldiers and SS troops, supported by Ukrainian collaborators. On 16 August, upon the news that 30,000 people had been ordered to be immediately deported from the Białystok ghetto, the resistance movement called for an uprising. The main goal of the fight was to break the German defence line, which would allow as many people as possible to escape from the ghetto to the surrounding forests. A small group of about 300-500 insurgents, armed mainly with home-made pistols and grenades, led by Mordechaj Tenenbaum and Daniel Moszkowicz, fought for 5 days with about 3,000 German soldiers, tanks, armoured cars and warplanes. Many fighters died during the fighting, and the leaders of the uprising - Tenenbaum and Moszkowicz, seeing that the uprising had no chance, committed suicide. About 150 fighters managed to escape to the Knyszyn Forest, where they joined partisan groups.

After the uprising was suppressed, on 18–20 August 1943, further deportations took place. Jews able to work were sent to labour camps, among others, in Poniatowa in the Lublin district. About 12,000 people from the Białystok ghetto were then sent to the death camp in Treblinka (10 transports) and to Auschwitz (2 transports). About 1,200 Jewish children from Białystok were sent to the ghetto in Terezin (Theresienstadt) in the Czech Republic, where they stayed for about 6 weeks. At that time, the Germans started negotiations regarding the possibility of exchanging Jewish children for German citizens imprisoned by the English. When the talks ended in failure, on 5 October 1943, 1,196 children and 53 guardians were transported to the Auschwitz death camp, where they all died in the gas chambers two days later.

As a result of these activities, only about 1–2 thousand people remained in the Białystok ghetto. They were placed in the "little ghetto" and employed for cleaning work. The "little ghetto" was liquidated on 8 September 1943, and its inhabitants were sent to the labour camp in Poniatowa in the Lublin district and to the German death camps in Bełżec, Auschwitz, and to the concentration camp at Majdanek. Some of them died on 3 November 1943, during Operation Erntefest, when the Germans murdered about 42,000 Jews. It is estimated that out of about 50,000–60,000 ghetto inhabitants, only 260 people survived the war, mainly in the camps and in partisan units, as well as in hiding on the "Aryan side".