Bialystok Ghetto Uprising
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
's Białystok Ghetto, launched on the night of August 16, 1943 against the Nazi German occupation authorities
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It was organized and led by Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa
Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa
Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa was an underground organization formed in 1942 in the Ghetto in Białystok by former officers of the Polish Land Forces...
(Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
for Anti-Fascist Combat Organisation), a part of the Anti-Fascist Block. The Białystok Ghetto Uprising was the second largest ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europes during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants to concentration and extermination camps....
in Nazi occupied Poland, after the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
of January 1943.
Until February 1943 there were approximately 15,000 people still living in the Białystok Ghetto. In February, the first wave of mass deportations to Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
took place, organized with the aim of liquidating the Ghetto during country-wide Aktion Reinhard. In spite of the outbreak of armed resistance among the local inhabitants, the deportations to concentration and extermination camps went ahead as planned. The final liquidation of the Ghetto was attempted on August 16, 1943 by regiments of the German SS reinforced by Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Latvian auxiliaries. During the night of August 16, 1943, several hundred Polish Jews started an armed uprising against the troops carrying out liquidation of the Ghetto.
The guerillas led by Mordechaj Tenenbaum and Daniel Moszkowicz were armed with only one machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
, several dozen pistols, Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s and bottles filled with acid. As with the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
extinguished in May 1943, the Białystok uprising had no chances for military success. However, it was seen as a way to die in combat rather than in German camps. A Betar
Betar
The Betar Movement is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir Jabotinsky. It has been traditionally linked to the original Herut and then Likud political parties of Israel, and was closely affiliated with the pre-Israel Revisionist Zionist splinter group...
commander was http://iis.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebook.asp?lang=ENG&dlang=ENG&module=search&page=list&rsvr=1¶m=%3Cuppernav%3Ecomplex%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@15@@1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EENG%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Ecomplex%3C/%3E%3Ctimeline%3E2%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3E!35;COMPNO%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3Ez1zBrief%20Description:%20z3zBetar,%20Word%20stem%20%20z1zData%20Banks:%20z3z%20Albums%20Section,%20Photo%20Archive%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eidh-appl1_1164_166515%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E20%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E133%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@INVENTDES%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E33841%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cmainimage%3Emultimedia/GFH/0000035078/0000035078_1_web.jpg%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3Ebetar@@n%3C/%3E¶m2=%3Csearch_type%3Ecomplex%3C/%3E%3Cnum_fields%3E9%3C/%3E%3Cnvf%3E9%3C/%3E%3Cnor%3E17%3C/%3E%3Cnvr%3E10%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E0%3C/%3E&site=gfhYitzhak Fkeischer].
The fights in isolated pockets of resistance lasted for several days, but the defence was broken almost instantly. The commanders of the struggle committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
after their bunkers ran out of ammunition. Most of the Jews from the Ghetto were then sent to camps in Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
, Majdanek
Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
and Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. Approximately 1,200 children were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp
Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...
and later to Auschwitz.
Several dozen guerillas managed to break through to the forests surrounding Białystok where they joined the partisan units of Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
and other organisations and survived the war. It is estimated that out of almost 60,000 Jews who lived in Białystok before the war only several hundred survived the Holocaust.
Books
- B. Mark, „Ruch oporu w getcie białostockim. Samoobrona-zagłada-powstanie”, Warszawa 1952.
- „Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939 – 1945. Informator encyklopedyczny.”, Warszawa 1979 r.