Bialystok District

Coordinates: 53°08′N 23°09′E / 53.133°N 23.150°E / 53.133; 23.150
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bialystok District
Bezirk Bjelostock
Bezirk of Nazi Germany
1941–1945
Flag of Bialystok
Flag

Bialystok District in 1942
CapitalBjelostock
Area
 • Coordinates53°08′N 23°09′E / 53.133°N 23.150°E / 53.133; 23.150
History 
• Established
August 1 1941
• Disestablished
May 8 1945
Political subdivisions8 Kreiskommissariate
Today part ofPoland
Belarus
Lithuania

Bialystok District (

Regierungsbezirk Zichenau
, although in contrast to the latter, it was not incorporated into, but merely attached to East Prussia.

The territory lay to the east of the

Zivilverwaltungsgebiet). As Bialystok District, the area was under German rule from 1941 to 1944 without ever formally being incorporated into the German Reich.[2]

The district was established because of its perceived military importance as a

Neman.[3] Germany had desired to annex the area even during the First World War, based on the historical claim arising from the Third Partition of Poland, which had delegated Białystok to Prussia from 1795 to 1806 (see New East Prussia).[4] In contrast to other territories of Eastern Poland which were permanently annexed by the Soviet Union following the Second World War, most of the territory was later returned to Poland.[2]

History

Map of Nazi Germany dated March 1944 which includes Bialystok District (top-right, light blue)

Administration

After the start of

Great Synagogue, Białystok
on 27 June 1941.

The first decree for the implementation of civil administration in these newly occupied territories was issued on 17 July 1941. It was announced that the Bialystok district will implement civil administration at a time to be determined.

On July 22, Hitler announced that from August 1, Erich Koch would take over the Bialystok district and demarcate the borders of the district.

Brest-Litovsk and then following the border of the General Government to East Prussia.[2]

Bialystok District was established on 1 August 1941; it was simultaneously excluded from the operational zones of the German Army in the Soviet Union. At the same time, some small areas to the east of the 1939–1941 German-Soviet border were incorporated into the East Prussian district of Scharfenwiese (now Ostrołęka). With this the city of Scharfenwiese henceforth held more hinterland to the east.[2]

On August 1,

Tilsit
.

In addition, SS and security forces were under the direct command of the

intelligence service) and the SiPo (security police), which included the Gestapo (secret police). The commanders were SS-Standartenführer Werner Fromm (January 1942 – January 1943), SS-Brigadeführer Otto Hellwig (May 1943 – July 1944) and SS-Oberführer Heinz Roch (July – October 1944). The SSPF reported to the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) of Russland Mitte (Central Russia) headquartered in Mogilev until July 1943 and thereafter in Minsk. This was SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (May 1941 – June 1944) and then SS-Obergruppenführer Curt von Gottberg (June – August 1944).[8]

The center of administration for the district was the Polish city of Białystok. The area had a population of 1,383,000 inhabitants, which included 980,000 (70.9%) ethnic Poles, 200,000 (14.5%) Belarusians, 120,000 (8.7%) Jews, 80,000 (5.8%) Ukrainians, and 2,000 (0.1%) ethnic Germans. The district was divided into eight county-level administrative units, called district police stations (German: kreiskommissariate, Polish: komisariaty powiatowe). These were the police stations Bialystok (Kreiskommissariat Nikolaus), Bielsk-Podlaski (Kreiskommissariat Tubenthal), Grajewski (Kreiskommissariat Piachor, then Knispel), Grodno (Kreiskommissariat Plötz), Łomża (Kreiskommissariat Gräben), Sokolski (Kreiskommissariat Seiler), Volkovysk (Kreiskommissariat Pfeifer) and the city of Białystok.

Nazi repressions

Identity document of Bialystok District (1943)

Until the end of July 1941, the city of Białystok was under controlled by

Waniek and more in the Osuszek forest near the village of Piliki.[5]

Eberhard Schöngarth on orders from the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), due to reports of Soviet guerrilla activity in the area with Jews being of course immediately suspected of helping them out.[11] The first stage of the Nazi persecutions mainly involved applying collective punishment to various villages where any form of real-or-imagined threat had been identified. Terror operations were enacted to prevent assistance to independence movements but mostly to round-up and persecute local Jews. Targeted buildings were being destroyed, possessions robbed, communities mass murdered or sent to labor camps or prisons. SS-Gruppenführer Nebe reported to Berlin on 14 November 1941 that, up to then 45,000 persons had been eliminated.[5]

The situation of the local population did improve after the Raid on Mittenheide. The Germans introduced the policy of finding and forcing anyone who could be of German ancestry, even based on the "pure German looks" in some cases, to accept the German ancestry card (usually 4th category "The Traitors of the German Nation," in spite of the ominous-sounding name, it meant elevation above the rest of the population). The Germans were harkening back to the times of the New East Prussia.[2]

On 1 November 1941, the city of Grodno (location of the Grodno Ghetto set up at the same time)[12] including its surroundings, were transferred from the Reichskommissariat Ostland to Bialystok.

Already on 27 June 1941, a camp for Soviet prisoners of war was established in Bialystok named Stalag 57. On 1 August 1942, it was renamed Stalag 316. It was located in the former barracks of the 10th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment at 70 Kawaleryjska Street. It was the first one of its kind, except for the makeshift camp that was set up in September 1939 in the building of the Secondary School No. 6. Up to twelve thousand people could stay there at one time. Prisoners were used for construction works at the nearby "Krywlany" airport. Tens of thousands of people passed through the camp, of which approximately 3,000 were killed. After its liquidation in 1943, a transit camp was set up there for the Jewish population. Several other camps were also established: a transitional camp for people taken to forced labor into the Third Reich consisting of 3 barracks, a penal camp in Starosielce located in the triangle between the railway lines Białystok - Ełk and Białystok - Warsaw, and the "Zielona" penal camp located between Zaścianki and the Skorupa district where people were arrested for violating German regulations, such as being late for work or alcohol abuse.

Following the German occupation, most Jews had been rounded up and forced into some 60

Bialystok Ghetto took place in August 1943, when the remaining 30,000 Jews there were sent to be murdered.[13]

Resistance

The

V2-rocket, parts of which were transported to London
.

During the night of 15–16 August 1943, the

ghetto uprising, after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.[2]

On 20 October 1943, the southern border between the East Prussian district Sudauen (Suwałki) in the Province of East Prussia and the Bialystok District was adjusted and moved back to the northern side of the Augustów Canal.

A July 1944 German map of Bialystok District, labelled "South East Prussia"

In January 1944, the region's Home Army began participating in

Bartenstein. In January 1945, the Red Army overran the last areas of Bialystok District, namely the remaining parts of the districts Łomża and Grajewo
, driving the Germans completely out of the territory.

References

  1. ^ Ostland Atlas, at Libx.BSU.edu
  2. ^
    ISSN 1641-9561
    . Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Förster 1998, p. 1239.
  4. ISBN 0-19-822887-2
    .
  5. ^ a b c Marcin Markiewicz, "Represje hitlerowskie wobec wsi białostockiej" (Nazi Repressions Against the Białystok Countryside) in Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance (Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej), issue: 121, pages: 65-68. (in Polish)
  6. ^ a b "Erlaß des Führers über die Verwaltung des Gebietes um Wilna, des Raumes um Bialystok und des Gebietes von Lemberg vom 22. Juli 1941". territorial.de. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
  7. ^ "Erlaß des Führers über die vorläufige Verwaltung des Bezirks Bialystok vom 15. August 1941". territorial.de. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
  8. ISBN 0-7643-0145-4
    .
  9. JSTOR j.ctv1rmk6w
    .
  10. ^ Szarota, Tomasz (December 2–3, 2000). "Do we now know everything for certain? (translation)". Gazeta Wyborcza. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  11. ^ (in Polish) Urban, Thomas, "Poszukiwany Hermann Schaper", Rzeczpospolita, 01.09.01 Nr 204
  12. ^ Encyklopedia PWN (2015). "Okupacja sowiecka ziem polskich 1939–41" [Soviet occupation of Poland in 1939-41]. Przywracanie Pamięci (in Polish). Polscy Sprawiedliwi. Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-04-30.
  13. ^ "First deportation from Bialystok district to Auschwitz". ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation. Retrieved 23 July 2022. The final liquidation of the Bialystok Ghetto took place in August 1943, when the remaining 30,000 Jews there were sent to extermination.
  • Gnatowski M., "Białostockie Zgrupowanie Partyzanckie". Białystok 1994
  • Förster, Jürgen (1998). "Securing 'Living-Space'". In Boog, Horst; Förster, Jürgen; Hoffmann, Joachim; Klink, Ernst; Müller, Rolf-Dieter; Ueberschär, Gerd R. (eds.). The Attack on the Soviet Union. Vol. IV. Translated by McMurry, Dean S.; Osers, Ewald; Willmot, Louise. Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (
    ISBN 0-19-822886-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
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