Białystok: Capital of Jewish Podlasie

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The first Jews settled in Białystok in the seventeenth century, but the rapid development of the community began in the eighteenth century when the town came under the Branicki family. Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki deliberately brought in Jewish merchants, offering settlement privileges — Białystok was to become a centre of trade between Mazowsze and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By 1799 the Jewish population already numbered more than six thousand. In the nineteenth century, under Russian partition, Białystok went through dynamic industrialisation. Dozens of textile factories were founded, the majority owned by Jewish families (Citron, Halpern, Hoffman, Polak). The community grew to forty thousand by 1897 — sixty per cent of the town. The Białystok Jewish bourgeoisie built the Great Synagogue (Choral Synagogue) in 1908 — a vast Moorish-style building with a dome twenty metres across, one of the largest synagogues in the Russian Empire. Around it operated dozens of shtibels (small synagogues), two large houses of study, a Jewish hospital, a Hebrew gymnasium and the influential Hashomer Hatzair publishing house. In 1906 Białystok experienced one of the bloodiest pogroms in the Russian Empire — in June 1906 Russian soldiers and Black Hundreds murdered about eighty people and wounded more than two hundred. The shock accelerated emigration — between 1900 and 1914 more than fifteen thousand Jews emigrated from Białystok to the US, forming substantial communities in Brooklyn and Newark. In the interwar years Białystok remained the capital of Jewish Podlasie. Fifty thousand Jews made up half of the hundred-thousand city. Dozens of schools operated — Tarbut, CYSHO, Beis Yaakov, Hebrew and Yiddish gymnasia. Three Jewish daily newspapers, two Yiddish theatres, dozens of Zionist and Bundist organisations. Białystok was one of the principal centres of the Bund — the Jewish socialist workers' party — in Poland; in the 1939 Town Council elections the Bund won nineteen of fifty seats. On 22 June 1941 the Germans occupied Białystok. On 27 June, barely a week later, units of Order Police Battalion 309 and the Wehrmacht herded two thousand Jews into the Great Synagogue, locked the doors and set the building ablaze. The synagogue burned with people inside — estimates range from eight hundred to two thousand victims. The same day, in a pogrom, two to three thousand more were murdered. Survivors remember the event as the Red Friday of Białystok. In the summer of 1941 the Germans established the ghetto, taking in the historic Jewish quarter. About sixty thousand people were confined there — Białystok Jews and Jews from the surrounding towns. The first deportations to Treblinka began on 5 February 1943. In response an organised resistance movement developed under Mordechai Tenenbaum — Jewish fighters with experience of the uprising in the Vilna and Warsaw ghettos formed combat units. On 16 August 1943, as the Germans began the final liquidation of the ghetto, the Białystok Ghetto Uprising broke out. The fighting lasted five days. Of about five thousand spared the immediate slaughter, most died at Treblinka. Mordechai Tenenbaum was killed in the fighting. After the war about eleven hundred Jews returned to Białystok — mostly from the USSR, the partisans and the camps. Most emigrated between 1946 and 1957. Today a small Jewish community exists in Białystok, centred on the Cytron Synagogue — the only synagogue in the city to have survived. Memory is sustained by the Great Synagogue Memorial (a steel installation on the site of the burned building), the Ghetto Uprising Memorial, and the Jewish cemetery on Wschodnia Street with six thousand matzevot. The Bagnówka forest outside Białystok — site of mass executions from 1941 to 1943 — bears monuments over the mass graves.

The Germans occupied Białystok on 22 June 1941, in the first days of the invasion of the USSR. Five days later, on 27 June, units of Order Police Battalion 309 and the Wehrmacht herded two thousand Jews into the Great Synagogue, locked the doors and set the building ablaze. The synagogue burned with people inside — estimates of the victims range from eight hundred to two thousand. The same day, in a pogrom, two to three thousand more were murdered — a total of about five thousand victims on the first day of occupation. The event is known as the Red Friday of Białystok. In the summer of 1941 the Germans established the ghetto, taking in the historic Jewish quarter between Lipowa, Sienkiewicza and Białostoczańska streets. About sixty thousand people were confined there — Białystok Jews and Jews from the surrounding towns (Choroszcz, Knyszyn; Tykocin was bypassed, being exterminated on the spot). The first deportations to Treblinka began on 5 February 1943 — about 12,000 people were deported in the course of a week. On 16 August 1943, as the Germans began the final liquidation of the ghetto, the Białystok Ghetto Uprising broke out. Under the command of Mordechai Tenenbaum, Jewish fighters of the Bund, Hashomer Hatzair and Communist resistance groups fought for five days. Of about five thousand spared the immediate slaughter, most died at Treblinka. Tenenbaum was killed in the fighting. Of fifty thousand Białystok Jews, about eleven hundred survived the war.

A visit to Białystok takes in a wide scale of sites — from monuments in the city centre to the Bagnówka forest on the outskirts. We recommend a full day. The Great Synagogue Memorial and the Ghetto Uprising Memorial are accessible year-round at no charge. The Jewish cemetery on Wschodnia Street is open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-16:00 (summer), by prior contact with the Social and Cultural Society of Jews. The Cytron Synagogue — visits by prior arrangement with the local Jewish community. The Bagnówka forest is accessible year-round. The site is marked; monuments stand over the mass graves. Allow about forty minutes for a full visit with reflection. We recommend driving in a Mercedes V-Class (ten kilometres from the centre; the road is surfaced; parking by the forest). Etiquette: men cover their heads when entering the synagogue and the cemetery. In the cemetery one does not walk on graves. At the mass-grave monuments it is customary to leave a small stone. Photography of monuments is permitted; in the synagogue and cemetery — without flash. Recommended day plan from Warsaw: depart at eight in the morning, two and a half hours on the S8 motorway. The first three hours in the centre of Białystok — the Great Synagogue Memorial, the Ghetto Uprising Memorial, a walk through the former Jewish quarter, the Cytron Synagogue (if arranged). Lunch at a restaurant on Kościuszko Square — Lipiec or Restauracja Polenroll (Podlasie cuisine, not kosher). In the afternoon, the Jewish cemetery (an hour and a half) and the Bagnówka forest (forty minutes). Return to Warsaw by eight in the evening. An intensive single-day visit; also possible as a two-day variant with overnight stay at the Hotel Branicki in the centre.

Mercedes V-Class from Warsaw to Białystok is two and a half hours on the S8 motorway. The 195-kilometre route is comfortable. Rush-hour traffic around Warsaw (07:00-09:30) can extend the journey by half an hour — we recommend departure at eight in the morning. Parking in the centre of Białystok: underground parking at Galeria Alfa (five minutes on foot to the Great Synagogue Memorial), parking at the Podlasie Opera. The Jewish cemetery — free parking at the gate. The Bagnówka forest — free parking by the forest. Recommended transfer duration: eleven to twelve hours door-to-door for a full day in Białystok. Departure at eight in the morning from your hotel in Warsaw, return by eight in the evening. For visitors combining the visit with Tykocin (thirty-five kilometres from Białystok, 1,500 Jews before 1939), a two-day variant with overnight at the Hotel Branicki is possible. For those tracing family roots — the Museum of Białystok and the Social and Cultural Society of Jews archive are accessible by prior appointment.