Reflections
A World Gone By: Bialystok
For over two hundred years the Jewish community in Bialystok served as a beacon of Torah and Judaism, radiating its light over the entire north-east of Poland. The annihilation of the Jews of Bialystok by the Nazis began on the 15th of Av, 1943. May Hashem Avenge their blood.
Motti Meringer 11/08/2009 10:00
The city of Bialystok is situated in the north-eastern region of Poland, and was founded in the year 5080 (1320) but only hosted a Jewish presence about four hundred years later. The town was originally founded by a family of aristocrats, and was subsequently passed down the family as an inheritance, until the last descendent died with no heir and the city was transferred to ownership of the state.
Jews began to settle in Bialystok at the beginning of the 18th Century, amongst them many refugees from Russia fleeing the rampant pogroms plaguing their hometowns. The Jews contributed greatly to the economic development of the city, and within a mere hundred years the Jewish population rose from a few hundred individuals to five hundred thousand Jews. This rapid growth stemmed once again from a Russian influx, as the dire financial straits of Russia’s Jews forced them to seek greener pastures. The local Jews did not turn a blind eye to their suffering brethren and set up various relief funds for the benefit of the needy.
The Jewish community continued to grow at a lightning pace, and by the end of the 19th Century comprised over seventy percent of the local population. The construction of a railroad traversing the area transformed Bialystok into a major commercial center, as it was now easily accessible to tradesmen and merchandise.
On the 21st of Sivan 5666 (1906) a fearsome pogrom hit the town and left hundreds of Jews murdered in cold blood; the incident was sparked by a slew of pogroms taking place in nearby Ukraine in the cities of Odessa and Kiev, which were themselves offshoots of the notorious Kishinev pogroms.
Over the years, Bialystok was home to some of our nation’s greatest luminaries. Before Rav Meir Simcha HaKohen served as Rav in Dvinsk, he lived in Bialystok and his influence was felt by all. The city blossomed spiritually with the arrival of the Gaon Rav Avraham Yaffen, who settled there and established the famed Novardok Yeshiva. Additionally, for a span of about ten years beginning in 5676 (1916), Bialystok served as a center for the Slonimer Chassidus, after Rebbe Avraham Weinberg (the second) decided to settle there.
With the outbreak of the Second World War the Nazis occupied the city of Bialystok, but soon afterwards it was transferred to Soviet rulership as per the ‘Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact’ signed between the Germans and the Russians.
On the 27th of Sivan 5701 (1941), the Germans began the infamous ‘Barbarossa Campaign’, where they reclaimed control of the entire Poland from the Russians. Bialystok was occupied once again by the accursed Nazis, and immediately upon their entry into the town they burned down the Jewish Quarter where over three thousand Jews were living at the time. Hy’d.
A month into the occupation, the Nazis built the Bialystok Ghetto where they concentrated over fifty-thousand Jews. The residents of the ghetto were employed in forced labor units within the various factories in the ghetto, mainly textile plants.
Deportations from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp began during the winter of 5702 (1942). In the first wave of transports, approximately ten thousand people – around one fifth of the entire ghetto population – were deported. They endured a hellish train ride in subhuman conditions to Treblinka, during which many were cruelly shot by the German beasts - demons who walked around in the guise of human beings. Those who survived the nightmarish journey were sent directly to the gas chambers, and were murdered sanctifying Hashem’s Name.
In midsummer of the same year, the Nazis decided to liquidate the Bialystok Ghetto entirely and gathered eight thousand Jews, including many small children, to a collection point near the train station from where they sent them to join millions of their brethren in the death camps of Treblinka, Auschwitz and Majdanek.
When it became obvious to the remaining residents of the ghetto that the situation was hopeless and the Nazis were determined to eliminate the entire ghetto, small buds of rebellion began to sprout around the ghetto. At the helm of the rebels stood Mordechai Tennenbaum, who united the various factions into one organized group. As in every other place, the main problem facing the rebels of Bialystok was a dearth of weapons. With the help of the Judenrat leader Mr. Barash, the rebels succeeded in converting one of the textile plants in the ghetto into a hidden factory for the manufacture of weapons, and with the assistance of a Jewish chemist by name of Grossman, they began to produce improvised grenades and homemade bombs.
In the dense forests adjacent to the city, pockets of Russian partisans staged sporadic attacks against the Germans. The rebels inside the ghetto turned to these Partisans requesting additional firearms, but received a negative response. Several individuals succeeded in escaping the ghetto whereupon they joined the ranks of the partisans, who hated the Jews no less than the Germans did. Many a time these Jews were killed by the very partisans with whom they fought shoulder to shoulder. It is estimated that around one hundred fifty Jews from the ghetto joined the partisans.
The 15th of Av 5703 (1943), was the fateful day reserved by the Nazis for the final extermination of the ghetto. At the head of the ‘Aktzia’ stood arch-murderer Vadilav Globoznik, together with hundreds of SS officers and Ukrainian collaborators. At the time the residents of the ghetto numbered over thirty thousand people, less than half the original population.
At dawn the ghetto was surrounded by three rings of Nazi soldiers, and on the streets large posters appeared announcing that the Jews were to converge at a collection point near the gates of the ghetto, on Yurovitzk Street. At the same time, members of the underground urgently sent out messages to the people not to obey the instructions, but the majority was not persuaded and until the noon hours people streamed towards the gates, until the assembled crowd numbered over twenty-thousand.
At ten o’clock in the morning, the revolt broke out in Ghetto Bialystok. The brave fighters, no more than two hundred fifty in all, were for the most part unarmed but held hatchets or improvised grenades. Their main plan was to break into the ranks of soldiers surrounding the ghetto, and forge a path through which the Jews could escape into the nearby forest. Within the first few moments of the revolt the Germans dispatched scores of tanks and armoured vehicles to retaliate; but not before the fighters had succeeded in inflicting heavy losses against the enemy, relative to their ability. The severe lack of manpower and weapons held them back, and they were swiftly cut down by the Nazis. The fighting continued with less intensity for another three days, until almost all the members of the underground were killed and the last few lone fighters escaped to the woods to join the partisans.
The Jews concentrated at the gates of the ghetto since the first day of the Aktzia, were led to a nearby field adjoining the train station where a Selektzia was carried out. Those who were declared unable to work were loaded onto trains and transported to their deaths in the gas chambers of Treblinka and Auschwitz. Meanwhile those who could still be squeezed of their last drops of strength were transported to Lublin for forced labor.
The ill-fated transports continued unabated for an entire week. During those seven days, fourteen trains left Bialystok carrying over ten thousand helpless Jews. Twelve out of those transports were sent to Treblinka, and two arrived at the gates of Auschwitz.
After the liquidation of the ghetto, the Nazis left behind one thousand Jews whom they incarcerated in a small ghetto, and whose heartbreaking task was to gather and sort the abandoned possessions of their murdered brothers. After three weeks the small ghetto was liquidated too, and its residents transferred to Lublin.
The city of Bialystok was finally liberated on the 7th of Av 5704 (1944) by the advancing Russian army. A handful of pitiful survivors slowly drifted back, numbering no more than nine hundred in all - the last remnants of a glorious Jewish community that was and is no more.
Most of the survivors immigrated to the holy Land, where they settled in the town of Yahud in the center of the country. There they formed their own community, which they named after their beloved hometown - ‘Kiryat Bialystok’.
Jews began to settle in Bialystok at the beginning of the 18th Century, amongst them many refugees from Russia fleeing the rampant pogroms plaguing their hometowns. The Jews contributed greatly to the economic development of the city, and within a mere hundred years the Jewish population rose from a few hundred individuals to five hundred thousand Jews. This rapid growth stemmed once again from a Russian influx, as the dire financial straits of Russia’s Jews forced them to seek greener pastures. The local Jews did not turn a blind eye to their suffering brethren and set up various relief funds for the benefit of the needy.
The Jewish community continued to grow at a lightning pace, and by the end of the 19th Century comprised over seventy percent of the local population. The construction of a railroad traversing the area transformed Bialystok into a major commercial center, as it was now easily accessible to tradesmen and merchandise.
On the 21st of Sivan 5666 (1906) a fearsome pogrom hit the town and left hundreds of Jews murdered in cold blood; the incident was sparked by a slew of pogroms taking place in nearby Ukraine in the cities of Odessa and Kiev, which were themselves offshoots of the notorious Kishinev pogroms.
Over the years, Bialystok was home to some of our nation’s greatest luminaries. Before Rav Meir Simcha HaKohen served as Rav in Dvinsk, he lived in Bialystok and his influence was felt by all. The city blossomed spiritually with the arrival of the Gaon Rav Avraham Yaffen, who settled there and established the famed Novardok Yeshiva. Additionally, for a span of about ten years beginning in 5676 (1916), Bialystok served as a center for the Slonimer Chassidus, after Rebbe Avraham Weinberg (the second) decided to settle there.
With the outbreak of the Second World War the Nazis occupied the city of Bialystok, but soon afterwards it was transferred to Soviet rulership as per the ‘Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact’ signed between the Germans and the Russians.
On the 27th of Sivan 5701 (1941), the Germans began the infamous ‘Barbarossa Campaign’, where they reclaimed control of the entire Poland from the Russians. Bialystok was occupied once again by the accursed Nazis, and immediately upon their entry into the town they burned down the Jewish Quarter where over three thousand Jews were living at the time. Hy’d.
A month into the occupation, the Nazis built the Bialystok Ghetto where they concentrated over fifty-thousand Jews. The residents of the ghetto were employed in forced labor units within the various factories in the ghetto, mainly textile plants.
Deportations from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp began during the winter of 5702 (1942). In the first wave of transports, approximately ten thousand people – around one fifth of the entire ghetto population – were deported. They endured a hellish train ride in subhuman conditions to Treblinka, during which many were cruelly shot by the German beasts - demons who walked around in the guise of human beings. Those who survived the nightmarish journey were sent directly to the gas chambers, and were murdered sanctifying Hashem’s Name.
In midsummer of the same year, the Nazis decided to liquidate the Bialystok Ghetto entirely and gathered eight thousand Jews, including many small children, to a collection point near the train station from where they sent them to join millions of their brethren in the death camps of Treblinka, Auschwitz and Majdanek.
When it became obvious to the remaining residents of the ghetto that the situation was hopeless and the Nazis were determined to eliminate the entire ghetto, small buds of rebellion began to sprout around the ghetto. At the helm of the rebels stood Mordechai Tennenbaum, who united the various factions into one organized group. As in every other place, the main problem facing the rebels of Bialystok was a dearth of weapons. With the help of the Judenrat leader Mr. Barash, the rebels succeeded in converting one of the textile plants in the ghetto into a hidden factory for the manufacture of weapons, and with the assistance of a Jewish chemist by name of Grossman, they began to produce improvised grenades and homemade bombs.
In the dense forests adjacent to the city, pockets of Russian partisans staged sporadic attacks against the Germans. The rebels inside the ghetto turned to these Partisans requesting additional firearms, but received a negative response. Several individuals succeeded in escaping the ghetto whereupon they joined the ranks of the partisans, who hated the Jews no less than the Germans did. Many a time these Jews were killed by the very partisans with whom they fought shoulder to shoulder. It is estimated that around one hundred fifty Jews from the ghetto joined the partisans.
The 15th of Av 5703 (1943), was the fateful day reserved by the Nazis for the final extermination of the ghetto. At the head of the ‘Aktzia’ stood arch-murderer Vadilav Globoznik, together with hundreds of SS officers and Ukrainian collaborators. At the time the residents of the ghetto numbered over thirty thousand people, less than half the original population.
At dawn the ghetto was surrounded by three rings of Nazi soldiers, and on the streets large posters appeared announcing that the Jews were to converge at a collection point near the gates of the ghetto, on Yurovitzk Street. At the same time, members of the underground urgently sent out messages to the people not to obey the instructions, but the majority was not persuaded and until the noon hours people streamed towards the gates, until the assembled crowd numbered over twenty-thousand.
At ten o’clock in the morning, the revolt broke out in Ghetto Bialystok. The brave fighters, no more than two hundred fifty in all, were for the most part unarmed but held hatchets or improvised grenades. Their main plan was to break into the ranks of soldiers surrounding the ghetto, and forge a path through which the Jews could escape into the nearby forest. Within the first few moments of the revolt the Germans dispatched scores of tanks and armoured vehicles to retaliate; but not before the fighters had succeeded in inflicting heavy losses against the enemy, relative to their ability. The severe lack of manpower and weapons held them back, and they were swiftly cut down by the Nazis. The fighting continued with less intensity for another three days, until almost all the members of the underground were killed and the last few lone fighters escaped to the woods to join the partisans.
The Jews concentrated at the gates of the ghetto since the first day of the Aktzia, were led to a nearby field adjoining the train station where a Selektzia was carried out. Those who were declared unable to work were loaded onto trains and transported to their deaths in the gas chambers of Treblinka and Auschwitz. Meanwhile those who could still be squeezed of their last drops of strength were transported to Lublin for forced labor.
The ill-fated transports continued unabated for an entire week. During those seven days, fourteen trains left Bialystok carrying over ten thousand helpless Jews. Twelve out of those transports were sent to Treblinka, and two arrived at the gates of Auschwitz.
After the liquidation of the ghetto, the Nazis left behind one thousand Jews whom they incarcerated in a small ghetto, and whose heartbreaking task was to gather and sort the abandoned possessions of their murdered brothers. After three weeks the small ghetto was liquidated too, and its residents transferred to Lublin.
The city of Bialystok was finally liberated on the 7th of Av 5704 (1944) by the advancing Russian army. A handful of pitiful survivors slowly drifted back, numbering no more than nine hundred in all - the last remnants of a glorious Jewish community that was and is no more.
Most of the survivors immigrated to the holy Land, where they settled in the town of Yahud in the center of the country. There they formed their own community, which they named after their beloved hometown - ‘Kiryat Bialystok’.
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