Białystok Ghetto uprising

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Białystok Ghetto uprising
Part of
Nazi occupied Poland
Result Uprising suppressed
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders Odilo Globocnik
Strength 300 to 500Casualties and losses 9 Germans wounded[1] 11,200 Deported to KZ camps Several dozen to a few hundred reported to have escaped the ghetto to join partisans

The Białystok Ghetto uprising was an insurrection in the Jewish

Nazi-occupied Poland after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April–May 1943.[2] It was led by the Anti-Fascist Military Organisation (Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa), a branch of the Warsaw Anti-Fascist Bloc.[3]

The revolt began upon the German announcement of mass deportations from the ghetto. The main objective was to break the German siege and allow the maximum number of Jews to escape into the neighboring Knyszyn (Knyszyński) Forest. A group of about 300 to 500 insurgents armed with 25 rifles and 100 pistols as well as home-made Molotov cocktails for grenades, attacked the overwhelming German force with a great loss of life. Leaders of the uprising committed suicide. Several dozen combatants managed to break through and run into the Knyszyn Forest where they joined other guerrilla groups.[2][3]

Background

The Białystok Ghetto was set up by Nazi Germany in occupied

Aktion Reinhard.[5] The final liquidation of the ghetto was attempted on August 16, 1943, by regiments of the German SS reinforced by Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Latvian auxiliaries ("Hiwis"),[4] known as the "Trawniki men" .[6]

Uprising

During the night of August 16, 1943, several hundred Polish Jews started an armed uprising against the troops carrying out liquidation of the ghetto.

Mordechaj Tenenbaum and Daniel Moszkowicz were armed with only one machine gun, rifles, several dozen pistols, Molotov cocktails and bottles filled with acid. As with the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising extinguished in May 1943, the Białystok uprising had no chance for military success. However, it was seen as a way to die in combat rather than in German camps. A Betar youth commander was Yitzhak Fleischer,[7] also spelled Fleisher,[8] or Berl Fleischer according to different source.[9]

Smoldering ruins in Białystok (August 1943)[10]

The fights in isolated pockets of resistance lasted for several days, but the defence was broken almost instantly with a tank sent into the ghetto by SS

Theresienstadt concentration camp
and later to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

Several dozen guerillas managed to break through to the forests surrounding

Holocaust
.

Analysis

Historian

Zionist chapters were well organized and had experience with clandestine activity from having operated underground even before the Nazi occupation, and ultimately successfully organized a rebellion, and convinced the rival communist faction to join; in Kraków, the Zionists were poorly organized and often dependent on cooperation with the communists, and thus could not successfully realize an uprising despite intending to. The difference between communist and Zionist behavior has been explained in the Zionists' greater salience of Jewish identity; they preferred to defend Jewish honor to the end even when doing so was suicidal, whereas the communists preferred to flee into forested lands and regroup.[13]

Notes and references

  1. ISBN 9781584657293. Retrieved 19 March 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  2. ^ a b c "The anniversary of the uprising in Bialystok ghetto". Virtual Shtetl. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Białystok ghetto resistance. Part of: History of Jewish community in Białystok". Virtual Shtetl. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  4. ^ a b c Ada Holtzman, ed. (September 2010) [December 1945]. "Testimony of Dr. Szymon Datner". Walka i Zaglada Bialostockiego Ghetta [The Struggle and Destruction of the Bialystok Ghetto]. Translated by Tzipora Eker-Survitz; Bella Bryks-Klein. Tel Aviv. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  5. ^ The Black Book of Russian Jewry, p. 202 reports one German killed on 4 February 1943
  6. ISBN 0786429135. Retrieved 2013-04-30. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  7. ^ "Yitzhak Fleischer, commander of Betar fighters in the Bialystok ghetto uprising". Ghetto Fighters House Archives. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  8. ^ Bender, pp. 253–263
  9. LCCN 78120535
    . Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  10. ^ Puśko, Radek (1 October 2013). "Pamięć najlepszym świadectwem" [Memory is the best proof]. Fakty Białystok.
  11. ^ Bender, p. 263
  12. ^ Bender, pp. 265–68
  13. S2CID 145678579
    .

Books

  • B. Mark, "Ruch oporu w getcie białostockim. Samoobrona-zagłada-powstanie" (Polish, "Resistance movement in the Białystok ghetto. Self-defence – annihilation – uprising."), Warsaw 1952.
  • "Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939 – 1945. Informator encyklopedyczny." (Polish, "Nazi camps on Polish soil 1939–1945. Encyclopedic reference book."), Warsaw 1979 r.
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