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2010-08-17

The anniversary of the uprising in Bialystok ghetto

Ilustracja

The plan of Bialystok ghetto   

 

The celebration of the 67th anniversary of the uprising in the local ghetto took place in Bialystok on 16th of August. After the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Bialystok uprising was the second largest revolt against the Germans organized by Jews. The celebration began at 12.00 on the Mordechai Tenenbaum’s Square in Bialystok. The performance "Mordechai", dedicated to the leader of the uprising, was shown at 15.00.

The ghetto in Bialystok was established by the Germans on the 26th of July, 1941. In this locality, there were about 42 000 Jews from Bialystok and the surrounding area. The uprising occurred on the night of 15th to 16th of August, 1943. The information that Germans planned to liquidate the ghetto was the main reason for the fighting.

The uprising was organized by the Anti-Fascist Fighting Organization. About 300 Jewish insurgents took part in the unequal struggle with the German gendarmes. Their goal was to reach the Knyszyn Forest. Jewish partisans had only 25 rifles and 100 pistols, while Germans had disposal tanks and artillery at their disposal. The morning of August the 16th was quite successful for the insurgents, but in the afternoon the ghetto was taken by the Germans.

The uprising lasted a little over a day. Only a few points were defended for a longer period of time. The leaders of the uprising, Mordechai Tenenbaum and Daniel Moszkowicz, committed suicide. Germans set fire to the ghetto and several hundred Jews were murdered. Approximately 10,000 Jews were led to the Bialystok train station and from there were sent to camps: Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and Theresienstadt. The liquidation of the ghetto ended on the 20th of August 1943. Some insurgents managed to escape to the forest where they lived until liberation. From more than 60,000 Jews who inhabited pre-war Bialystok and the surrounding area, only a thousand survived the war.

Based on: jewish.org.pl

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