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From the very beginning, when the Jews of Białystok were driven out and shut inside the ghetto, everyone was filled with despair. No one knew what the next morning would bring, and people tried to comfort one another. Yet they did not give up hope entirely; little by little they began to adjust to the sorrowful reality. With the hope that liberation from this harsh life would one day come, they started to organize themselves and adapt to the difficult conditions of the ghetto.

Life was cramped and filled with new and unexpected hardships. People also prepared food supplies in advance, enough for a short time, simply to get through the daily struggle. This was possible because, once the peasants learned that the Jews were moving into the ghetto and were paying with jewelry, clothing, and other valuables, they began bringing all kinds of products into the city. The Jews truly gave up their last possessions in order to obtain the necessities for the first days of life in the ghetto.

And through it all, one person helped another; people behaved toward each other as though they were one close, beloved Jewish family.

Yet despite all this, many Jews in the ghetto suffered from hunger. These were the impoverished people who had neither the means nor the valuables with which to buy products from the peasants in time. Because so many were in need, the Judenrat opened two kitchens in the ghetto.

One kitchen, known as the “people's kitchen,” distributed for a very small fee a kind of soup that was little more than water. The second, called the “intelligentsia kitchen,” offered slightly better food, though it too was meager and pitiable. It was understood that the Judenrat simply did not have the resources to provide anything more substantial. These kitchens distributed several thousand lunches each day.

The Judenrat also made use of a number of empty plots within the ghetto, where small vegetable gardens were established. These produced a little greenery, which was used for the kitchens and also distributed to part of the ghetto population.

In the ghetto, there was also a home for the elderly, an orphanage, a school, and similar – mostly unofficial – institutions. According to a Nazi decree, all institutions that had existed before the war had to cease functioning. This applied as well to the Artisans' School and to the well known “Ort” [Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades] courses. Yet a number of instructors from “Ort,” under the new conditions in the ghetto, continued to provide vocational training for the youth.

An important place among the Jews in the ghetto at that time was occupied by the Tel Khay [Hill of Life] Kibbutz. This kibbutz, which had already existed before the war, grew and strengthened during the war when a number of members – refugees from other places – joined it. The kibbutz, made up of young people from the Dror [“Freedom”, Zionist socialist Jewish youth movement] and Hashomer Hatzair [“The Young Guard”, left Zionist Jewish youth movement], was supported by the Poale Zion [“Workers of Zion”, Jewish socialist Zionist workers' party] leader M. Khmyelnik [Chmielnik], who served as the administrator of social welfare within the Judenrat.

The members of the kibbutz were given a large house in an abandoned area, at 8 Smolna Street. Because of this, people often referred to the kibbutz simply as di khate [the Hut]. Over time the kibbutz expanded. They even had their own kitchen, known as the “gardeners' kitchen.” The young people of the kibbutz planted vegetables on neglected and empty plots of land, which yielded good results.

The kibbutz also maintained a hakhsore training center – just as before the war – preparing its members for the skills they hoped to use later in the Land of Israel, which these young people longed to reach. The kibbutz also organized seminars and educational discussions, much like the kibbutzim that had existed in Poland before the war.

“The Tel Khay Kibbutz grew with a beautiful pioneering life– as Tsipora Birman wrote – and within the closed ghetto it became a small corner of light. In the evenings they sang, sometimes they held a little celebration, and for a moment they could forget their troubles.”

The main driving force of the Tel Khay Kibbutz – who later became the hero of the uprising against the Nazis in Białystok – was Mordechai Tenenbaum Tamaroff. He had come to Białystok during the war from Vilna, Warsaw, and other places where he had been deeply involved in organizing and leading resistance against the Nazis.

Besides Mordechai Tenenbaum Tamaroff, the leadership of the Tel Khay Kibbutz – which later became an important center of the Białystoker uprising – also included the following young people:

• Zvi Hersh Mersik, originally from Melnitse near Kovel;
• Hershl Zvi Rosental, from Yashinovke near Białystok;
• Ruven Rozenberg, from Sukhovolye [Suchowola] in the Białystok district;
• Khanoch Zhelaznagora, from Shedlets [Siedlce];
• Yokheved Weinstein, from Knyszyn;
• Gedalia Petlyuk, also from Knyszyn;
• Tsipora Birman, from Rozhishtshe [Rozhyszcze] in Volhynia;
• Yisrael Margolis, from the town of Vishogrudek [Wyszogród];
• Tema Shneyderman, from Warsaw;

At that time, the kibbutz had several dozen members – devoted young idealists striving for the Land of Israel – who later showed great courage and heroism in the struggle against the Nazi murderers.

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Young people from other political groupings among the Jews of Białystok also showed great courage and Jewish pride while living in the ghetto. It was truly admirable how the Jewish youth, so heavily stricken and under the Nazi yoke, did not break.

Each in their own way – among the youth just as among the adults – and under the new harsh conditions, they strove to endure this difficult time with dignity. They continued to study, to draw knowledge from the eternal Jewish spiritual sources. The Nazis did not succeed in degrading or erasing – aside from a few insignificant exceptions – Jewish honor.

The spiritual life of the Jews in the ghetto, just like their physical existence, was accompanied by a painful, thorny path.

“Cultural work on a larger scale – as D. Klementinowski later wrote – could not be carried out in the ghetto. The gatherings of the pioneering, socialist, and communist youth were underground and bore the character of resistance against the enemy. There the uprising was prepared; there the connections were organized between the resistance groups in the ghettos of Vilna, Białystok, Warsaw; and there the Jewish partisan was trained and formed.

Cultural work, however, was carried out by individuals. Each one, quietly, underground on their own, in their narrow little room, each in their own way, wove and spun Jewish history, wrote small pages for the sorrowful history of the present, recorded the daily bloody events. The old editor Pesach Kaplan, the old historian Hershberg, the old social activist, founder of Linas Hatzedek [Home and Association for the Poor and Sick] and veteran of the Zionist movement in Białystok, Yehoshua Heshel Klementinowski, recorded their experiences – seeing and living through what was happening to the community and to the surroundings where they had lived out their difficult, productive social lives.

The old maskilim died in the ghetto. With them disappeared their manuscripts as well. The younger generation perished later, and from their work almost nothing has remained.”

The days, weeks, and months for the more than fifty thousand Jews – women, children, men, youths, and the elderly – in the enclosed Białystoker ghetto dragged on like an eternity. It was a sorrowful eternity, with no end in sight. Thousands of Jews, among them many women, went out to work for the Nazis under harsh and unbearable conditions, simply in order to survive. Although everyone knew well how difficult these conditions were, there was no other choice.

Along with all this came sorrowful news, accompanied by horrifying facts, about the suffering and perishing of Jews in the towns and small settlements around Białystok – in Słonim, Łomża, Tykocin, Bielsk, Grajewo, and other places. This news was brought by Jews who had escaped from those places and managed to reach the Białystoker ghetto.

Many Jews in Białystok had relatives in the surrounding towns and villages, and the tragic reports of the Nazi murders there aroused grief and despair here as well, in the Białystoker ghetto.

Translator's notes:

1. Contents in [ ] are from the translator. Contents in ( ) are from the author. Return
2. I would like to note that a chapter with similar content - apparently by the same author - appears on page 65 of the English section of this Yizkor Book, under the title “Days of Uncertainty and Hope” However, this is a separate translation and a significant abridgement of the original text, prepared by Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick- or Rabbi Shmuel A. Kronick, as indicated on page VI. This version also contains several deviations from the original. Return

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Pesach Kaplan, the well known Jewish writer, scholar, translator, and longtime editor of the Białystok daily newspaper Unzer Lebn, was widely known in our former hometown. Kaplan lived and worked in Białystok for nearly sixty years, and through his dedication and loyalty he contributed greatly to the cultural and social development of the Jews of Białystok. Elsewhere in this Yizkor book, in separate descriptions, the life and death of Pesach Kaplan in the Białystoker ghetto are portrayed.

In the tragic years of Hitler's rule, Kaplan served as the official archivist in the Białystoker ghetto. He had the opportunity to observe and also to record – accompanied by great difficulties in those times – what was happening in the life of the Jews. Throughout his entire time in the ghetto, Pesach Kaplan kept a diary about the formation and functioning of the Judenrat. In it he describes the structure and activities of the Judenrat in almost all areas. While in the ghetto, Kaplan also recorded other important facts, activities, and events.

In his chronicle of the great, terrible February Aktion, which he wrote in his Khurbn Bialystok, Kaplan cried out the words as if in blood: “How can one take up the lamentations over the destruction of Białystok? I can only record dry facts, as they remain engraved in my consciousness, in the memory of those freshly past, dark, bloody days. “

Here we present Pesach Kaplan's ghetto diary, which was found after the war in the ruins of the ghetto, together with other materials of the former Judenrat. Kaplan wrote this diary, as said, throughout the entire period, including after the great Aktion at the beginning of February. Shortly after completing the diary, in March 1943, the gentle, warm hearted Pesach Kaplan passed away, no longer able to bear the pain and suffering of that time.

Already on the very first day when the Germans entered Białystok, the commander – a general – sent for the rabbi, Rabbi Dr. Gedaliah Rozenman. He received him in his office, located in the former State Bank, and informed him that he was being appointed as Obmann (chairman) of the Jews of Białystok, and that by the next morning he had to assemble a twelve member Judenrat and present the list.

Refusing, of course, was impossible. The city was like a desert. Jews had scattered; those who remained were locked inside their homes. To walk through the street, the rabbi had to carry a flashlight.

He therefore sent out his shames [sexton], Mordekhay Movshovitsh, to the well-known communal activists, his coworkers in the Jewish community. The serious, conscientious Jews, sensing the command of the moment, did not refuse and took upon themselves this responsible and dangerous mission.

The first to arrive were: the former community director, engineer Efraim Barash; the young nationalist communal worker Yakov Goldberg; the parnes [community head and benefactor] Shmuel Punyanski, former vice chairman; Yakov Lifshits; and others. Many people were also invited who were not among the established communal activists, but whom one considered, precisely in this moment, to be potentially useful because of certain connections they had.

At the appointed time the list of the twelve was submitted, which, within a few weeks, according to the order of the authorities, was enlarged to twenty four.

And although the leading figures of the Judenrat repeatedly declared in their public statements that they were not a social institution but merely an executive organ of the German authorities, created to carry out their orders, nevertheless the composition of the Judenrat consisted almost 100 percent of recognized communal activists.

As a result, the institution was accorded a high social standing– although one cannot, at the same time, deny that, given the circumstances of their work, it was impossible to avoid both the appearance and the reality of autocracy.

From the very first day, the functions of the Judenrat consisted of maintaining contact with the authorities.

The chairman, Dr. Rozenman, and his deputy, engineer Barash, would go every morning to the representative of the authorities, listen to his orders, return, and immediately issue directives to carry them out with the greatest possible precision. Once, for being five minutes late, they were made to feel the whip on their shoulders. Another time, for some small inaccuracy, they were ordered to wash an automobile for half an hour with their bare hands. Almost every order, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, was accompanied by the warning: “If not – we will shoot.”

Gradually, the rabbi, because of his age and weak health, had to step back from his practical duties, and all the work became concentrated in the hands of Engineer Barash, who nominally remains the deputy until this very day (March 1943). In fact, however, he is the chairman and truly the sole representative of the Jewish population in Białystok.

Because the meetings with the authorities have to take place several times a day, Barash received permission to travel by carriage. In a second carriage travels the administrator of the Judenrat, Yakov Goldberg. The rabbi, whose office door still bears the sign ‘Chairman,’ has completely ceased to involve himself in dealings with the authorities and carries out only certain internal communal matters, chiefly philanthropic ones.

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The leading body of the Judenrat's executive organ is the Presidium, which consists of:

Rabbi Dr. Rozenman – official chairman; Engineer E. Barash – de facto leader; B. Subotnik – finances; Y. Goldberg – administration; and at certain times also Liman – responsible for practical implementation in various fields.

Engineer Barash is regarded by the broad public as the dictator of the ghetto. In fact, he is the only one who constantly keeps his hand on the pulse and conducts the unceasing struggle on both fronts: with the Germans, to remove, lessen, or postpone harsh decrees; and with the Jews, to eliminate shortcomings and injustices for our own good. His chief qualities are tremendous energy, straightforwardness, stubbornness, extraordinary precision, and above all, neki-kapayim [clean hands]. With his head held high, with the pride of his own righteousness, he looks everyone in the eye and demands the same mercilessly from his coworkers.

He is also distinguished by a quick grasp of situations, unusual common sense, and a logical clarity in thought and speech. His speeches, too, are statesmanlike – short, factual, without unnecessary words, with remarkable coherence and clarity. His dictatorial manner may fit his character, but not his political convictions.

Therefore, with every responsible step, he consults with the Presidium, sometimes even several times a day. From time to time he also appears at meetings of the Judenrat, with precise minutes (recorded by R. Gutman), and in very serious moments, when danger hangs over the ghetto and a warning must be issued, large public assemblies are convened at the

Linas Hatzedek, where the main role is played by the speech of Engineer Barash – a speech that in the ghetto is interpreted and explained like the words of the Urim-vetumim^[3] [a biblical term referring to the High Priest's sacred oracle, used to discern God's will].

The relations with the authorities are made difficult by the chaotic state of the hierarchy within the organs of power themselves. In the German military, civil, and police administration there is not one unified authority, but an entire conglomerate of different power organs, each of which presents itself as the highest in rank and issues dictatorial, draconian demands. Very often the demands of one contradict those of another, and one does not know whom to obey. Yet one is playing with life itself, because it is not uncommon for them to threaten to shoot half of the Judenrat, the entire Judenrat, or simply a hundred Jews or three hundred.

There even exists a written document in which two typewriters are demanded to be delivered within the span of one day, and if they are not delivered by the specified hour and minute, two members of the Judenrat will be shot.

In theory, things are supposed to become easier once the German civil ghetto administration is created – the one single organ with which one is officially meant to have contact. To avoid misunderstandings, the administration issues an “iron letter” to the Judenrat, bearing the German state seal, stating that no authority has the right to requisition or demand anything here except the ghetto administration itself.

The letter lies spread out under glass on the writing desk in Chairman Barash's office. This has partially reduced the anarchy. Yet the number of commanders and overseers who demand and require things is extraordinarily large, and one must satisfy them.

The demands cover an unusually wide range. As people bitterly say here: anything that starts with the first letter of the alphabet must be supplied. There is not a single item in the economy that is not needed – and whatever is needed is immediately demanded from the Judenrat.

The Nayvelt [Nowy Świat] Bes Medresh built in 1893. The front wall after the destruction.

The demand for tableware is enormous. Often dozens of full sets are required, with precise instructions for the shape of each spoon, knife, plate, and saucer – even their color. The Judenrat sends out its messengers to those who possess such things, and everything is collected and delivered. And this does not happen once, nor ten times, but dozens of times – almost continuously – because the authorities change so often.

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One group leaves and another arrives. The previous utensils have disappeared somewhere, and new ones must be supplied without any protest.

The demand for bedding, mattresses, and office furniture is particularly great. Because of this, the Judenrat must constantly organize voluntary – or even forced – requisitions of all these items, as well as carpets, which are collected from the wealthier population, either without payment or for a fee. And with these things one continually furnishes and refurnishes the German rooms.

The demand for clothing and footwear is also extremely large, and everything must be supplied both wholesale and in detail. This creates an enormous strain on the Judenrat, physically and financially – and yet everything is delivered.

The Katsever [Butcher's] Bes-Medresh on Zamenhof [Yatke] Street, built in 1899. The front wall after the destruction.

The first major decree is the demand for a contribution: five million rubles, five kilos of gold, and three hundred kilos of silver. The Judenrat immediately harnesses all its enormous energy, working on two fronts: on the one hand trying to negotiate a reduction, and on the other hand striving to obtain from the population the highest possible sum. Lives may depend on this – not only the lives of the Judenrat, but of hundreds of others.

A rabbinical decree was issued, and throughout the city a mood of trust in the Judenrat immediately arose. People brought several hundred rubles; others gave their very last possessions. Ten commissions worked in different rooms, and everywhere there stood lines of people bringing money, gold, and silver.

When the first installment of the contribution was paid precisely on time, this won favor with the authorities, and it became possible to begin requesting a reduction of the sum of money and of the amount of gold. When the second and third installments were brought, two million rubles were finally negotiated off the sum, and the Judenrat completed its task fully.

This precision served the Judenrat well and helped it in various later situations. It even created a certain respect among its superiors, especially for the actual chairman, Barash, whom they recognized as a capable, energetic, and meticulous worker – someone they could rely on.

A second severe decree was the order to move into the ghetto. One can imagine what a terrifying and crushing impression this medieval-style decree made on the Jews. The Judenrat did not dare lose its head if it was to remain standing. All regulations had to be carried out exactly and precisely in order to be able to negotiate certain favors and mitigations. And indeed, much was achieved. We received a better part of the city, a larger number of streets, and many large and important front line houses on the border of the ghetto. The deadline for the move was extended by several days, and in the end the demanded ten million contribution was imposed – allegedly because the vacated apartments had not been cleaned properly.

At the same time, of course, the Judenrat had to demand the greatest calm and order from the Jews during the move, and had to prevent the demolition of the old apartments, as some people had begun to do.

But this already belonged to the enormous internal work of the Judenrat.

The authorities declared that the ghetto was a kind of “state within a state,” and that the Judenrat had unlimited powers in this area, provided only that it fulfilled the demands of the authorities. At the same time, the German authorities claimed to have no interest in interfering in the internal affairs of the ghetto, leaving everything entirely on the shoulders of the Judenrat.

For this purpose, the Judenrat first created its own police force (Order Service), under the command of the former fire brigade commander, Izak Markus. The policemen – more than 200 in all, almost all young, healthy men – received special insignia on their caps and armbands on their sleeves. The ghetto was divided into four districts with a central command. As the commander's closest collaborator, the widely beloved Moyshe Berman (a well known Białystok campaigner) was later appointed.

It has been very difficult for the Judenrat to keep this unpaid police force up to the level required by its tasks, and it has not always succeed.

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But on the whole the apparatus functions effectively, and if the ghetto does not drown in filth, if the population does not push each other off the sidewalks, if dust does not get into people's eyes, if the ice is cleared, and so on – this is thanks to the work of the police.

By order of the German authorities, the Jewish police had been created by the Judenrat already in the first days after moving into the ghetto.

The central command of the Order Service is housed in the “Palace” (the building of the Judenrat on Kupiecka 32) immediately at the entrance, in a row of rooms on the right and left. The criminal division, the first district, and others are also located here.

To describe the activity of the police in the ghetto one would need to write a large volume. Here, however, only general outlines will be presented – those known to any outside observer.

The task of the police is, first of all, to maintain order in the streets: to keep people walking on the right side of the main street (Kupiecka Street), to stand at the corners of the side streets, and to regulate movement when Germans are in the ghetto, so that people do not draw too much attention to themselves. In general, the regulation of street movement plays a considerable role in the work of the police and takes up much of their energy.

The cleanliness of the streets and courtyards is supervised by the police, who also draw up reports when the regulations are not followed. The police must also regulate trade, disperse the crowds at the market, and prevent any smuggling; and, when ordered, they also help the German patrol supervise the gates (the two ghetto gates), to ensure that nothing forbidden is smuggled in.

The police also deliver summonses for forced labor or for evacuation.

They must, of course, also prevent theft and arrest thieves. For this purpose there is a detention cellar in the building of the Judenrat itself, and a proper prison with individual cells, built on Zamenhof Street. At times, when ordered, Jewish policemen escort a Jewish prisoner outside the ghetto and hand him over to the Gestapo, where no mercy awaits him.

To regulate the relations between the population and the police, the Judenrat has to apply extraordinarily heavy efforts. The fact is that Jews in the ghetto, living on the legal ten decagrams of bread a day, long since have died out. And even with the thirty decagrams from the Judenrat, plus the soup from the kitchen, one still cannot live. One must therefore trade, smuggle, speculate, look for a livelihood. The policeman has the opportunity, and abuses can arise on all sides. The policeman can demand bribes, and the population often insults the policeman. As a result, demoralization spreads, even to the point of anarchy. Very often this has posed a danger to the entire ghetto.

There have even been serious abuses by two higher police officials (Fenigshteyn and Zelikowitsh), close collaborators of the commander, and one of them even waged an open campaign before the German authorities against the Judenrat, in order to compromise it. The Judenrat repelled their attack, and as a result both were arrested outside the ghetto and have remained there to this very day.

At the same time, the Judenrat itself carries out purges in the police, removes the undesirable elements, and even sends others to forced labor camps (the worst being the Kirchhof's forced labor camp on the Baranovitsher [Baranowicze] Highway). It also calls upon the population – through posters and at assemblies – to obey the policeman unconditionally, to submit to all his regulations, and to treat him with respect.

After a certain cleansing had been carried out in the police (after the mutiny of the policemen during the first Aktion), the Judenrat selected a cadre of honest, socially respectable young men and, almost by force, drew them into the police. The Judenrat truly did everything it could to create a good police force and to educate the public in a spirit of obedience, and to a certain degree it succeeded. In the process of improving relations, the Judenrat appointed as vice commander the popular, intelligent, sympathetic, and honest Moyshe Berman, who in the last months played an active and very positive role in the police.

Within the limits of what was possible, the Judenrat also organized a system of justice, with professional, licensed jurists working in various sections, where trials were conducted in full, orderly, state like procedure – only the punishments, of course, were determined and carried out according to ghetto conditions. (Every police precinct also housed a court.)

The finance minister became Berl Subotnik, the same man who had distinguished himself through the clarity and straightforwardness with which he interpreted his page of Gemara in Yekhiel Neche's Bes-Medresh. With that same logical simplicity, he now helped to solve the most tangled financial questions. Money had been needed from the very beginning in order to satisfy the German demands. Later, however, a large independent budget also became necessary. First, through a special commission, a direct tax was established, which was taken from the wealthy; at the same time, percentages of income for electricity and water were collected, and later industry and labor outside the ghetto brought in certain sums.

In this way a finance department developed within the Judenrat, with a large staff of officials occupying several rooms, and with a special treasury like that of a state bank,

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under the leadership of Director Subotnik, who sits in room number 10 and signes the orders, while behind the door long lines of petitioners wait quietly and respectfully to be admitted.

Often it breaks one's heart to see how formerly great dignitaries have to stand there behind the door, on their feet for hours, until they are let in. They then have to listen once more to the directors's nervous shouting at the doorkeeper, demanding to know why he was letting in too many people at once. But it does not help – order has to be maintained.

For that reason, however, the financial policy of the Judenrat did not suffer a single failure for a full nineteen to twenty months, and was conducted truly like that of a small kingdom. It handled large sums – hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of marks – and it collected its “challah” – [its share, its levy] – on the “motzi,” [the services it provided], even though it had to distribute quite a number of such “motzis,” as we shall see later.

It was extraordinarily difficult to find the proper method for a correct and just taxation of the population. The Judenrat knew that the fairest tax is the direct one, taken from the wealthier and from those with a livelihood. But in the ghetto, where all social classes were thrown together, there were no stable wealthy people and no firmly established earners.

The greatest income makers were smugglers, speculators, and other kinds of rootless people – yesterday's beggars, even underworld figures. And even this was not stable, but sporadic and accidental. The biggest earners were wagon drivers and… boys selling cigarettes.

In the ghetto there had sprung up restaurants, shops large and small, and other corners of trade which, as people said, earned very handsomely. The Judenrat therefore created a commission to track down these earners and collect taxes from them. From the restaurants and from the little shops, licenses were demanded, and they were charged for them according to each person's social and economic standing.

At first, however, this could not be maintained in the bookkeeping, because it was simply impossible to find everyone and to assess them properly. And worse still, all these earnings were unkosher – illicit – and the Judenrat fought them very energetically. Moreover, it then emerged that the Judenrat itself was also a partner in these dealings and shared in the guilt. There were cases when the Judenrat almost slipped, but thanks to its tactful and cautious handling, it saved itself and got out of the situation. (Every kind of free trade was strictly forbidden during wartime.)

Loading the Jews in the death-wagons at the Polieser Railroad Station

The provisioning work of the Judenrat began with a trifle: every day the magistrate would give several dozen kilos of rye flour, and from this bread was baked to be distributed to the 24 members of the Judenrat – half a kilo a day for each. This was supervised by the Council member M. Shvif. But very soon the Judenrat took it upon itself to become the main provider for the entire ghetto, and especially for the large army of workers inside and outside the ghetto, as well as for its own officials. And the provisioning department of the Judenrat was transformed into a miniature ministry, with a fairly large apparatus, under the leadership of Yakov Goldberg, the former chairman of the Tarbut organization.

The Judenrat receives a certain quantity of grain from the authorities. It gives it to the bakers to bake, and it distributes the daily bread ration to the population of 35,000 heads (the figure is far too low), setting the price for it according to its own judgment. In addition to this, all workers – both those outside the ghetto and those in the ghetto's factories – as well as the officials and employees of the Judenrat itself, receive daily bread rations, which at first amounted to half a kilo, later to 37 decagrams, and now to 30 decagrams a day. This entire large scale operation, as well as the supervision of the bakeries, is carried out by the provisioning department through a whole legion of inspectors and other officials.

The Judenrat also succeeded in obtaining from the authorities certain quantities of various buckwheats and cereals, sometimes also better flour, as well as sugar, oil, and other foodstuffs, soap, soda, and the like. All of this is kept in a depot (magazine) under the control of the provisioning department, which distributes it among the institutions and also to individuals, according to necessity.

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The heating campaign is carried out by the provisioning department, which distributes wood and coal among the institutions and officials. This task was performed well during the first ghetto winter. The second winter already went worse, because it received only a very small quantity of heating material. And since the public premises could not be left in the cold, the officials received very meager amounts, and in many houses there was simply no heating at all. Fortunately, the winter up to now (the beginning of February 1943) has been a mild one.

The potato campaign is also carried out by the provisioning department, which this year received a very large quantity. And the officials did not go hungry. Naturally, to satisfy the population with what the Germans give, when there is no free supply, is impossible. And there must always remain many who are dissatisfied and discontented. Therefore the head of the provisioning department finds himself in a difficult position, able to satisfy only a small number of those entitled to rations.

The German authorities have softened their hearts somewhat and have also granted us meat. But what kind? Mostly heads, feet of cattle, intestines with all the dirt, lungs, spleens, a little liver, and at times also some leftover overcooked pork with a lingering taste – all things that the so called Herrenvolk [master race] would normally not eat. But the starving ghetto Jew throws himself at it with great eagerness. And the Judenrat's butcher stall is literally besieged by people.

For a certain time we were also honored with horse meat, from which people at first recoiled, but later became accustomed to it, and it was torn from their hands.

Under the authority of the provisioning department is also the marmalade, which is produced in a special little factory of the Judenrat.

All these kinds of meat are distributed from time to time on the basis of orders – to the officials of the departments and to the factory workers. But since there is very little of it and many who want it, one receives it only very rarely, and each time it is taken up as if it were a holiday.

The main concern of the provisioning department, however, is to supply the social institutions, which require colossal quantities of food. And this is a very special achievement of the Judenrat, as will be described further on.

The head of the provisioning department naturally has to struggle with one great difficulty – the well known “Thou shalt not covet.” Around every single provisioning point works a considerable number of officials, who are themselves hungry, since they too receive no more than 30 decagrams of bread. How can one imagine that they would not take a tithe for themselves before it reaches the rightful recipient? And how can such a thing be fought?

How can one, for example, prevent in the meat depot that all the carriers and cutters and weighers and distributors, together with the inspectors, should not take for themselves precisely the best pieces, and, in addition, grant “side favors” in other areas? Such practices, however, can lead to anarchy and undermine the very foundations of the provisioning system itself.

And even that is not the end of it. When the meat arrives at a hospital, at a children's home, at a public kitchen – where again there are legions of officials who are hungry and greedy – how can they overcome the evil inclination, not to take for themselves and for their relatives the better and larger portions? And what then remains for the pensioners and the clients?

Under the specific conditions of ghetto poverty and food scarcity, this is one of the most serious problems, and it constantly aroused murmuring among the population. It was known that the Judenrat did not approve of it, and that the head of the department fought against it. But there was no certainty that he would succeed in “healing this wound.”

A colossal achievement was the creation of vegetable gardens in the ghetto in the year 1942. In the ghetto there were several larger gardens that had gone to waste, because the Christian owners were no longer there, and the Jews had thrown only dirt and refuse there; such were Prager's garden behind Nayvelt [Nowy Świat] Street, Bole's garden behind Yurovtser [Jurowiecka] Street, and besides these various other larger and smaller dumping places that had never known the taste of growth.

The Judenrat ploughed up all these uncultivated plots, however large or small they were, and planted them with vegetables. A large staff of guards was appointed to watch the plots day and night, under the leadership of Engineer Salit. And the result was tremendous: hundreds of thousands of kilos of all kinds of vegetables – cucumbers, beets, carrots, rutabagas, tomatoes, cabbage – which fed not only the institutions almost to satiety, but also stabilized the prices of vegetables on the private market.

In short: the gardening project simply helped save the ghetto population from the clutches of death by hunger. It should be entered on the credit side of the Judenrat.

The Judenrat also regulated, though only in a limited way, the milk question, which before the ghetto had been one of the weakest points. Several dozen cow–owners were in the ghetto, and one could obtain a glass of milk only for wildly inflated speculation prices.

Then the German authorities suddenly intervened and requisitioned some forty cows from the ghetto, leaving only four, and milk disappeared from the ghetto altogether. Jews turned to smuggling, and little by little cows began to reappear in the ghetto. But the high price of milk was truly unbearable.

The Judenrat, however, established its own small herd of cows, and the milk supplied the institutions and also some of the individual sick. This in turn partially regulated the private milk market as well.

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Naturally, both the vegetable production and the dairy operations are run by the provisioning department.

One of the most difficult departments of the Judenrat's work was the Labor Department, whose task was to supply the German authorities with labor forces.

From the very first day, the demands in this area were extremely large and unusually capricious – almost impossible to carry out. The demand would be issued suddenly, with a deadline of only a few hours, and the number of workers required was simply not available and could not be produced.

In addition, the working conditions were often very harsh, truly unbearable: for the slightest trifle, without any reason, one was beaten mercilessly. At times people were forced to work overtime; at times they were dragged off to work somewhere far away; at times they were made to carry loads that were beyond human strength.

And no refusal was permitted, no explanation accepted. For the smallest lack of punctuality, members of the Judenrat were threatened with being shot. Later they even began to whip the workers for not appearing punctually at work, or for other small “offenses.”

The Judenrat nearly suffocated under this problem, floundering like a fish under the ice. Great service in this area was rendered by the Council member Liman, who on many occasions saved the situation from serious troubles and unpleasant consequences. But he became exhausted and resigned his position. Various leaders succeeded one another, and none of them was able to master the situation completely.

Very often the intensified labor question created a serious danger for the entire ghetto. Having no other choice, the Judenrat was forced to recruit people for forced labor from among its own officials and industrial workers. Conferences of the department heads were held, and they decided that in every case of a demand, each unit would have to give up a certain percentage of its workers. This was extremely painful, especially because it was well known that many speculators and underworld types managed to evade all kinds of labor – both voluntary and forced.

When work summons cards were sent out, such people were never found at home, and in their place decent, hard working men – people with labor certificates who fulfilled their obligations conscientiously – had to go. But nothing helped. They bowed their heads and carried out the demands of the authorities as far as they were able.

The Judenrat organized a reserve brigade of men who received their bread ration for doing nothing except sitting in the office and waiting for a call up. This partially solved the problem, because when a sudden demand arrived, the number of reservists was not always sufficient to meet it at that very moment.

And once, when an unexpected demand came – with a short deadline and severe threats – for 130 girls for forced labor in Wołkowysk, the Judenrat had to resort to a drastic measure: with its own Jewish police it surrounded the building of the vocational courses, gathered there the required number of girls from among the students and workers, and sent them off to Wołkowysk. There the working conditions were actually quite mild, but later, during the murder Aktion in the province (on February 11, 1942), their lives were in great danger, and it cost the Judenrat enormous effort to free them and bring them back to their homes.

It was also extremely painful and cruel for the Judenrat to have to issue, from time to time, warning notices stating that such and such Jews, for evading work, for not appearing punctually at their workplace, and similar “offenses,” had been sentenced by the German authorities to flogging. These cases repeated themselves too often and certainly had their effect, but the problem still remained unsolved. And even now, in March 1943, both heads of the Labor Department, Mr. Ish and Mr. Polanski, had to resign because they were no longer able to carry out their functions properly.

Very extensive is the work of the Judenrat in the field of assistance to the poor and destitute – or, as it is called, social welfare – for which a separate department was created, headed by the Council member Mr. Petsiner, together with a special commission consisting of his former party comrades from Poale Zion, M. Khemlnik, Shvets, and the Council member M. Rubinstein.

As soon as the Judenrat began to organize its finances, they set about creating a number of institutions. A Home for the Aged was opened for approximately 200 elderly and disabled people, both local residents and those sent in from the province. The institution was administered by a special commission with an entire staff of officials.

The old persons [residents] received a daily bread ration, like the community employees, and in addition sweet coffee in the morning and evening, and at midday a soup – all supplied by the Provisioning Department. It was, of course, no great nourishment, and the mortality among the elderly was indeed not small. But throughout the entire year and a half, the food was provided regularly, without having to beg from door to door as before the war, until… the institution was liquidated in the last murder Aktion (February 5, 1943). The elderly were among the first to be seized for death.

There are also two children's homes functioning in the ghetto. One, the older one, on Tshenstokhover [Częstochowa] Street,

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has remained almost in its former condition, even with its previous administrators; only the children have grown considerably, can already take care of themselves, and others have also been drawn into the work.

A second children's home, on Fabrik Street, consists of little toddlers, infants, and somewhat older children – local ones, gathered [from the streets], and others sent in from the ruined provincial towns.

Both institutions are fed reasonably well by the Provisioning Department, even with the necessary fats and sugar, not to mention porridge, flour, potatoes, and the like – and at times even meat and meat dishes. The conditions and the medical supervision are also good, and the little toddlers have, until now, scarcely tasted the reality of the ghetto at all, except in a few isolated moments of special shortages of certain items in the Judenrat's supply base.

The Judenrat also took care to provide the destitute with a bit of warmth. At one of its meetings it was decided to open a kitchen for the intelligentsia under the name “PI” (in Polish: Pomoc Indywidualna, Individual Aid). This institution was meant to be a private undertaking, merely supported by the Judenrat. A special commission was created for this so called intelligentsia kitchen, under the leadership of the Council members Dr. Segal and the dentist Dr. Kopelman.

They began to levy contributions on the more affluent members of society for the benefit of the homeless intellectuals, who had no possibility of providing themselves with a midday meal. Gradually, however, the exclusive character of the kitchen was abandoned, and all restrictions were removed – although even today the intelligentsia still gathers around this kitchen.

Private donations, too, had dried up completely, leaving the “chimney empty”, and the kitchen is now maintained entirely by the Judenrat, which charges a minimal fee of 10 pfennigs for a meal. At first the meal consisted of two dishes – a soup and meat, or instead of meat a thick vegetable stew, and the like.

But this generosity did not last long, and soon they had to reduce it to a single dish: a soup, which is not always sufficiently thick. And yet it is a great help for more than a thousand people who warm themselves with this little soup.

Later it became necessary to open a second kitchen with more than a thousand meals for working people and the poor. A third kitchen was opened especially for policemen, firemen, and their families – also serving more than a thousand portions.

All this provisioning for the ghetto population is supplied entirely by the Provisioning Department of the Judenrat.

This activity of the Judenrat gave an impulse to private initiative among the Orthodox Jews, who eat only kosher food. They created a separate kitchen for more than a thousand meals, consisting of two dishes with bread, at a higher price. Later this kitchen, too, was reduced to a single soup – also at a higher price.

Medical care was organized by the Judenrat in a state like manner – in miniature. When the ghetto was created, the Jewish hospital from Warszewer Street was transferred to Fabrik Street, into an adapted building of the TOZ, under the supervision of the same Dr. Kaplan [the author of this chapter], serving in his role as a member of the Judenrat.

The hospital later expanded and took over another building across the street, especially for children. A “milk drop” station for infants was also established there – all maintained by the special Provisioning Department of the Judenrat. (This was the house at 10 Fabrik Street, where there was also a maternity hospital.)

A second hospital for infectious diseases was created at 7 Yuravtser [Jurowiecka] Street, in the former orphanage building. And in that same building is also located the Sanitation Department of the Judenrat, under the leadership of the young Council member Dr. Holenderski, with a staff of officials, doctors, and sanitary workers/medical aides.

In the building of Lines-Hatsedek [Linas Hatzedek] on Razhaner Street is located the central outpatient clinic for all kinds of illnesses, where a large number of ghetto doctors serve, each in his appointed hour. The waiting room is almost always full; the frequency of visits is very high.

In the building of Lines-Khoylim [Linas Cholim] on Zamenhof Street were the dental outpatient clinic and also the electro therapy room. Recently, after Zamenhof Street was removed from the ghetto (following the panic of November 1942), the outpatient clinics of Linas Cholim were transferred to Linas Hatzedek, into specially designated rooms. In a separate space a maternity home has been set up, which is quite well attended.

All the factories have their own doctors and nurses, who provide medical assistance on the spot.

The entire medical system is directed by the Health Department, under the leadership of the energetic and straightforward Dr. Moyshe Katsenelson.

The question of cleanliness is handled by the Sanitation Department of the Judenrat, under whose supervision two public bathhouses for steam and baths operate in the ghetto. At public gatherings of people, and also in densely populated dwellings, sanitary hygienic inspections are conducted with people standing in their underwear, and when necessary, people are sent to compulsory bathing.

The very same power that has crushed us into swinish living conditions now demands from us absolute cleanliness – because from filthy ghettos, as they babble, contagious diseases might spread even among the “high German race. “

Białystok freed itself of this accusation already in the first months.

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In the infectious disease hospital there was no typhus at all. And if a case did occur, brought in from outside the ghetto, strict isolation of entire residential courtyards was carried out, followed by thorough disinfection and delousing. In this field the organs of the Judenrat acted consistently.

Important in this matter as well is the question of sanitation (the removal of waste), which at first was carried out by the same private contractors who had done the work in earlier times. It cost unbelievably much – truly beyond people's means. There were also not enough transport vehicles, so the contractors were constantly behind with the work. The population, too, had grown negligent, and the result was overflowing pits, clogged latrines, filth, and a damp, foul, decaying stench in the courtyards and gutters. The danger to the ghetto became terribly great.

When this threatening situation had begun to be too glaring to ignore, the Judenrat took the problem into its own hands. It created a sanitation section under the leadership of A. Furman, who removed the matter from private hands and introduced a small surcharge on the bread cards. The cleaning is now carried out entirely free of charge. Permission was obtained to take the waste barrels outside the ghetto. The work is done quickly and thoroughly.

The garbage heaps, too, are cleared by the wagons of the Judenrat, which now empty themselves already within the ghetto, somewhere near its boundary. In this way the question of cleanliness has, in essence, been solved.

What remains is the cleaning of the bridges, sidewalks, gutters, courtyards, and stairways. This is now carried out by privately hired Jewish house wardens, and responsibility for it lies with the house committees and house administrators.

Through this, the sanitary condition in the ghetto is outwardly satisfactory. Naturally, it is difficult to penetrate into the bedding and underwear of the terribly cramped dwellings; even the sharpest eyes of the Judenrat apparatus cannot look into such places. The Sanitation Department of the Judenrat virtually floods the streets with its posters about cleanliness and warnings against the danger of lice. But propaganda is the weakest means in the struggle against a danger, insofar as it is not accompanied by compulsion.

Therefore the mortality in the ghetto is quite high – more than double what it was in normal times – and the cemetery on Zhabye Street is already almost at full capacity. Of course, the greatest role in this is played by the undernourishment of the population, which lives, in the best case, on bread with marmalade, on ungreased, watery porridge, supplemented by a potato.

But the fear of the cemetery becoming overcrowded does not particularly trouble us. It seems that in any case this field will not have to receive Jewish dead for much longer. (There is the illusion that after Stalingrad a quick German defeat is coming, and with it a solution for the Jews.)

Three pharmacies operate in the ghetto. They were nationalized by the Judenrat, which serves the public through all the pharmacists and dispensers, who in return receive the regular bread ration – the same as factory workers. The prices for prescriptions are very high, but destitute patients receive reductions through a special section of Social Welfare, where Berman formerly served and where Agushevitsh now works – both very sympathetic officials with great understanding for the needs of the masses.

A separate Housing Department of the Judenrat, under the leadership of Council member M. Shvif, deals with the housing question in the ghetto. All buildings have been nationalized and are under the authority of the Judenrat. The ghetto is calculated at 3 square meters of space per inhabitant – not much more than enough to avoid suffocation. These meters are allocated by the Housing Department, which keeps the records of all available space and issues orders for rooms. Without an order from the Housing Department no one is permitted to occupy a dwelling, and anyone who takes a room on their own initiative is thrown out by the police.

This task is connected with unbelievably difficult complications (the bringing together of neighbors). Although the officials do not place new neighbors without the consent of the other side, this department is nevertheless a constant emek ha-bakha [valley of tears] and a sela ha-makhlokes [rock of contention].

A second section of the Housing Department is responsible for maintaining order in the houses and apartments. For this purpose a large staff of 190 house administrators has been appointed. They come into close contact with all residents, know each person personally, hand each one their bread card, collect taxes, remind them of all obligations, and bear great responsibility toward the Judenrat. (The question of registering and deregistering outsiders was particularly delicate.) Four inspectors of the Housing Department supervise the institution of the house administrators.

For every square meter of occupied space one pays rent to the Finance Department, and in addition a special tax imposed by the German authorities, which is also collected by the house administrators.

A considerable place in the activity of the Judenrat is taken by the Economic Department, under the leadership of the energetic and tireless Council member Aba Furman. Here the entire economic administration of the Judenrat is concentrated, although its primary function is, once again, first and foremost the necessary minkha le Esav^[5] (that is: bribes for the Germans).

All metal objects and valuable items found in the ghetto are,

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from the outset, at the disposal of the Judenrat to be handed over to the Germans. The Economic Department constantly conducts collections – whether by gentle means or by harsh ones. It gathers various pieces of furniture and soft goods, all kinds of merchandise, kitchenware, household utensils – everything that might be of use in a German household – and upon the demand of the German, it is immediately supplied.

At the same time, the Economic Department also serves Social Welfare, distributing clothing, bedding, and various other items to needy homeless people, who often arrive almost stripped bare, with virtually nothing to their name.

The Economic Department also has its own laundry, where work is done sometimes for the German authorities, but mostly for Jewish institutions. There is also a sewing workshop, where items are mended, cleaned up, and made ready for use. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people in the ghetto have been clothed and outfitted through the Economic Department of the Judenrat.

In the ghetto, no building is carried out at all. And yet the Construction Department of the Judenrat, under the leadership of the prominent building contractor Nakhman Goldfarb (a Council member), has important functions to perform. The communal buildings, the factories, the various premises of the institutions, and the Judenrat itself in its own “palace” have required a great deal of work in building, rebuilding, adding on, and taking apart.

There is also no small amount of work around the fences surrounding the ghetto, which are constantly being shifted in connection with the shrinking and repositioning of the ghetto. Building materials are obtained from the Germans – a small portion taken from the Jewish houses outside the ghetto, which they keep demolishing in their systematic plan to destroy the old Białystok in order to build later, on its site, a new, genuinely German Białystok. With these rotted, decayed, nail ridden boards and beams, the construction work in the ghetto is carried out.

Several months ago, when the dark, bloody cloud of the Aktion descended upon the Białystok region (November 1942), the German authorities ordered the construction of several dozen barracks for a purpose that remained unknown to the public. This was carried out by our Construction Department, in the area between Tsheple [Ciepła], Faleske, and Fabritshne [Fabryczna] Streets.

Because of the cramped conditions in the ghetto, and the partitioning of apartments and rooms, the Construction Department has enormous work in fencing off, rebuilding, and planning also for private needs. It has also become customary in the ghetto that instead of using the large stoves that serve two, three, or four rooms, people build themselves a small little stove in the middle of the room, topped with a little cooking plate. Such little stoves have been installed by the thousands – some by the Construction Department and some, likewise, with its assistance.

One of the finest chapters in the activity of the Judenrat was the creation of a school system by the Cultural Department, under the leadership of the former teacher Pesach Kaplan. With the verbal permission that the German authorities granted to the representatives of the Judenrat already in the first honik vokhn [“honey weeks”] of the ghetto, the Cultural Department announced the organization of its own schools, two in number. One was a secular school, combining Yiddish and Hebrew, and the second an Orthodox one.

The first school, co educational, at 30 Fabrik Street, gathered approximately 1,600 children, from grades 1 through 6, who studied in three shifts, altogether in 39 classes. The second school, at 24 Nayvelt Street [Nowy Świat], served approximately 500 children in two shifts – boys separately and girls separately. The schools brought a bit of brightness into the ghetto, kept the children from becoming wild, and indeed educated them in the spirit of Jewishness.

In November 1942, when the bloody Aktion began in the Białystok province and at the same time the Białystoker ghetto was reduced in size, the schools were closed and were never reopened.

The same Cultural Department had earlier created vocational courses to teach Jewish children trades, together with general studies. There were courses in tailoring, metalwork, shoemaking, saddlery, electrotechnical work, and others. After existing for several months, the vocational courses became independent, expanded and grew, until they were transformed into factories, following the model of the others. The main focus was on manual work; the general studies were entirely abolished.

In a small room on the third floor of the Judenrat building is the Evidence Office, under the leadership of Dr. M. Bergman, where the population is registered and deregistered in order to receive bread cards. There, in accordance with the demands of the authorities, various lists concerning the population are compiled.

In a second room, under the leadership of the well known statistician Dr. Filetski, the statistics of the ghetto are maintained.

In the same room is also the ghetto's registry office, under the direction of Sh. Ravet.

The largest and most important branch of the Judenrat is the Industry Department, which is called the lifeline of the ghetto, or the branch on which we all sit.

“By virtue of the work we do for the authorities, they let us live,” say the responsible figures.

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Therefore the industry must be organized on as broad a scale as possible, so that we may be able to protect ourselves in its shadow.

For this purpose the Judenrat created an entire series of factories, large and small: a shoemaking shop, a tailoring shop, tricot production, felt, belt making, carpentry, barrel-making, and wheel/yoke making. There were also a whole series of vocational courses: electrotechnicians, brush making, cartonage; and factories for spirits, marmalade, and starch.

The main ones, however, are the large factories that work for the military authorities and employ, altogether, thousands of the ghetto's inhabitants.

At first the industry was organized with extraordinarily primitive means: various hand–looms were put together out of planks, spinning wheels were set up like the old peasant ones, and rope was twisted by hand. At the same time, various old machines and parts of machines were assembled in the ghetto. Such machines were also sent in by the authorities from outside the ghetto, even from nearby towns that had been destroyed and whose Jewish population had been wiped out.

By various means almost all machines – professional and private – were drawn into the industry, and a considerable production began, with quite serious orders from the military authorities.

The leadership of the industry was at first entrusted to the young Council member, the former craftsman and activist Pesach Melnitski, who in the organization and management of the work showed a great deal of resourceful initiative, ingenuity, and energy. At the same time, the young factory owner Finkel, recently released from Soviet imprisonment, arrived in the ghetto. Within a short time he succeeded in pushing himself into a leading position within the organization and establishing the proper contact with the German authorities.

When he soon moved on to organize the private German industry of Steffen (the name of the German owner) inside the ghetto, the leadership of the Judenrat industry again passed to P. Melnitski. But the more the industry expanded, the greater the responsibility became, and the more difficult the management. And according to a decision of the plenum of the Judenrat, the obman [head], engineer A. Barash, was appointed as director. He placed the work on a broad and solid foundation.

Each factory has its own director; the larger factories also have vice directors. And the director, Eng. Barash, holds morning audiences with all of them concerning the program of further work.

The Judenrat industry occupies an entire series of buildings, large and small – especially the tailoring shop, the shoemaking shop, the tricot workshop, the belt making shop, the felt workshop, and the vocational courses – all of which together employ thousands of Jewish workers and arouse great interest in military circles with their production. Very often one feels that this is a central nerve of public life in the ghetto.

Also operating in the ghetto are the above mentioned Steffen factories, which employ about two thousand Jewish workers, chiefly in carpentry, tailoring, and shoemaking, as well as a confection factory belonging to Linde, with a smaller number of workers (at the corner of Jurowiecka and Sienkiewicza Streets).

There are also two kombinats from the Soviet era still operating – complete factories – which stand at the edge of the ghetto. According to their old pre war tradition, Polish and Jewish workers work together there. The Poles enter through the passage from outside the ghetto, and the Jews through the ghetto gate. And here they meet on “neutral” ground.

Here, too, several hundred Jews are employed (referring to the first kombinat, at the corner of Jurowiecka and Polesie Streets, and the 27^th factory on Falne Street). But the main force of this central point is still the industry of the Judenrat, which dominates with its mass character and rich production.

A major task in this connection is carried out by the provisioning department of the Judenrat, which distributes the ration of 30 dekagrams of bread per day to all factory workers, as well as to the thousands of Jews – men and women – who used to go out to work outside the ghetto.

In the dark, terror filled days of February (1943), the factories rendered a vital service. The marauding murder bands – which cut down human lives as one cuts hay – did not enter there, and whoever managed to take shelter inside was saved. The Judenrat had long conceived a plan to employ so many Jews in the industry that, by virtue of their usefulness, the entire ghetto might be saved.

Within the Industry Department there functions a personnel office under the direction of the supervisor Liverant, with a full staff of employees, to admit workers into the factories. Every morning Liverant reports his proposals to the chief director, Eng. Barash, and without Mr. Barash's confirmation no worker may be accepted. The work permits, too, are valid only when signed by Barash; otherwise they are not recognized.

The admission of workers depends on the quantity of orders, which was not sufficient to carry out the great plan. The Judenrat conducted systematic, strenuous efforts in this field, but at the decisive moment (February 1943) it could not save the ghetto from the terrible catastrophe.

After the bloody slaughter, the struggle was renewed – and visibly with success. In recent weeks a new, massive registration of workers for the factories was carried out, and the number has already reached over 17,000 – a number that could already suffice to protect the entire ghetto population of 27,000 (the figure is estimated too low).

But the dark forces of hatred and murder are waging their struggle against us, and who will prevail is a question for the near future.

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The Ghetto Exhibition

The source of the ghetto industry's prestige was the truly extraordinary Ghetto Exhibition, organized outside the ghetto by the civil ghetto administration, in a rear section of its own premises at 3 Varshever [Warszawska] Street. In three modest, elegant rooms were displayed all kinds of products of the ghetto industry. There one could see a beautifully crafted draft collar, a saddle, a pair of boots for a cavalryman, a pair of felt boots, elegant women's shoes, all kinds of brushes for shoes, nails, hair, and more; rare, colorful tricot work; socks, gloves, kerchiefs, hats, small cardboard boxes, jars of marmalade, thick and thin rope, turnery and carpentry work. There were also linen coats for soldiers on the winter battlefield (so as not to be recognized in the snow), various jackets, trousers for military and civilian use – in general, a rich and varied image of domestic skill and instruments of war.

Everything was laid out and hung with great artistic taste by the Warsaw plastic artist Tsentnershver [Zentnerschwer], who lives in the ghetto. Two Jewish girls, who spoke fine German, served all day in the exhibition, receiving the German visitors, giving them explanations, and arousing in them the desire to visit the factories themselves, where all these wonders were created.

This Ghetto Exhibition, which was the pride and ornament of the (German) ghetto administration, was created, of course, on the initiative and with the assistance of the Judenrat. It existed for about a year and greatly enhanced the prestige of the Białystoker ghetto and of the Judenrat, until the dark November of 1942 arrived. The administration of the ghetto passed from the civil authorities to the Gestapo, and they closed the exhibition. It was transferred somewhere into a room inside the ghetto, but nothing more has been heard of it.

Downstairs, in Room 3 of the Judenrat building, is the kantselarye – the Secretariat of the Judenrat. Head of the Secretariat was the highly educated Miss Dr. Horovits Franke (a teacher at the Hebrew Gymnasium, originally from Stanisławów), whose main work consisted of writing all kinds of German essays, letters, and other documents for the authorities and for the public.

Here, too, exit permits for leaving the ghetto were prepared, and also for other cities when this was possible (until November 1942). Here were kept the seals of the Judenrat, especially the round one with the Star of David, which adorned all documents of the ghetto. Here one also submitted petitions, requests, and complaints to the Presidium of the Judenrat.

This was also where the public announcements in Yiddish were prepared. A group of three Yiddish knowers worked on them. The announcements were written or edited by Pesach Kaplan, and signed in beautiful script by the well known Warsaw graphic artist and poet Kh. Goldberg. Also taking part in this work was the well known Warsaw educator, pedagogue, and author of religious books, Rafael Gutman. As a result, the purity of the Yiddish in the announcements was preserved.

Here, too, the archive of all announcements and other documents of the ghetto was assembled and kept. Opposite, in Room No. 2, sat Miss Shprung, who handled the telephone and also carried out secretarial work for the obman [head], Engineer Barash.

After the turmoil of February 1943, the Secretariat became a ruin: the director, Horovits, took her own life and now lies in the cemetery. The man who pasted up the announcements, the well known newsboy Bishke, was shot together with his wife. No exit permits are issued anymore. Secretary Gutman works as a shoemaker in a factory. Various tasks seem to have melted away, and over the large, bright room there lies a kind of petrified sorrow…

Within the Judenrat there exists a Control Commission, under the leadership of the Council member, the well known, experienced, and honest communal activist Yakov Lifshits. This commission, with a small staff of officials, concerns itself with supervising the activity of the Judenrat's organs – to what extent the decisions and directives are carried out in a lawful manner (which sounds like an irony; the entire description creates a somewhat mysterious illusion).

The commission investigates, supervises, writes protocols, and submits them wherever required. Its activities are not known to the public.

The fire–extinguishing brigade, under the leadership of Viktor Bubrik, received the large fire engine and other necessary equipment and protects the ghetto from fire. And it is presumably also to their credit that throughout the entire time there has been no serious fire in the ghetto, apart from minor incidents. Outside the ghetto, however, there was once a fire in a factory, with some twenty victims – mostly Poles.

The fire brigade had a great deal of work when the Soviets once, in the middle of the night, carried out an attack on Białystok. They hit directly in the ghetto and, with two bombs, destroyed a house at Kupiecka 35 and killed 28 Jewish souls.

Among the things of first necessity for a cultured person are also counted electricity, water, soap, and soda – especially now, in the cramped and filthy conditions of our ghetto cage,

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where people live pressed together, head upon head, and where neither kerosene nor light is to be found except at legendary prices.

When we entered the ghetto, the price for electricity was still, from Soviet times, 20 kopeks per kilowatt, and for water 70 kopeks per cubic meter. But the German authorities soon devalued the ruble to one tenth of a German mark and, in addition, set new prices. Thus the price for electricity became 9 rubles (five times more expensive) and for water 5 rubles.

This was a catastrophe for the ghetto. And for the Jews it was a special levy, because outside the ghetto, for the Poles, the price was half.

It cost the Judenrat very hard and lengthy struggles until it succeeded in getting the prices reduced by half, as they were outside the ghetto. And at that level it remained. Only meanwhile life itself, with its iron force, had thrown the mark down into the Sheol takhteha – the depths of Sheol – while the ruble had already disappeared, and now electricity costs 50 pfennigs and water only a few groschen.

And we can use it with a broad hand, and it does not burden our budget in the least.

But even so, the Judenrat has a great burden in this matter, because the German authorities do not deal with individual consumers. They send the Judenrat the whole bundle of bills, and it must, within a short period – only a few days – pay many thousands of marks, collecting, with great difficulty, the groschen from the ghetto population. The Judenrat fulfills this task completely and therefore adds a small surcharge for collection. The people pay and are satisfied.

The question of soap in the ghetto is very complicated. This item, as is well known, is lacking even among the Germans themselves. But the Judenrat receives a considerable quantity of a certain ersatz soap, which works only moderately well – and even more, they receive German washing powder. It is distributed among the officials, and the population also receives some.

This, in brief, is the characterization of the Judenrat in the Białystoker ghetto, written by an observer solely on the basis of impressions, without any documentary research.

Translator's notes:

1. Contents in [ ] are from the translator. Contents in ( ) are from the author. Return
2. I would like to note that a chapter with similar content - apparently by the same author - appears on page 71 of the English section of this Yizkor Book, under the title “Pejsach Kaplan's Ghetto Diary.” However, this is a separate translation and a significant abridgement of the original text, prepared by Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick - or Rabbi Shmuel A. Kronick, as indicated on page VI. This version also contains several deviations from the original. Return
3. The Urim and Thummim were sacred objects kept in the breastplate of the Israelite High Priest and were consulted in antiquity to obtain divine guidance. Their exact nature is unknown, but they symbolized authoritative revelation. Return
4. hakometz masbia = a rabbinic expression meaning that even a small amount can suffice or yield enough Return
5. minkha le Esav = a biblical expression from Genesis 32, where Jacob sends gifts to his brother Esau in an attempt to appease him. In the ghetto context, the term is used ironically to denote the compulsory “tributes” or bribes that the Judenrat was forced to deliver to the German authorities in order to avert reprisals or secure minimal room for action. Return

In a letter that Rafael Reizner sent to the Bialystoker Shtime (May–June 1946), he conveyed the following details about the death of Pesach Kaplan: When the Aktion of 5 February 1943 broke out, Pesach Kaplan was hiding in a concealed hiding place of his own, but the air there was almost suffocating. During the night he tried to slip out for a moment to get a bit of fresh air, and he immediately caught a chill. On the third day of the slaughter he was able to get into the factory, where his eldest daughter, Sonye, held a responsible position. In the ghetto factories, the workers who had worked there before the slaughter were allowed to remain, and they had protection there – they were not taken out to Treblinka. In this way Pesach Kaplan, through his daughter, received the same protection as the workers. I myself, together with my family, was in the same factory. But Pesach Kaplan, who was ill and running a fever, kept rushing from window to window – despite the danger of a bullet to the head – to see what the dead streets looked like, and how the condemned Jews were being led to their deaths. The scenes were terrible. They were led in groups of 30 or 40, and often even 100, mostly women, children, and elderly people. One held the other under the arm, barely able to take a step, exhausted and half dead from having lain for several days in the hiding places. And if one of the unfortunate people could not keep up on the way, he was immediately taken out of the line – and there he lay, already shot. In this manner the Nazi robbers, over the course of the week during which the slaughter lasted, left more than a thousand murdered Jews lying in the streets of Białystok. Pesach Kaplan saw it with his own eyes. He could find no rest and kept saying to his friends and acquaintances that he would not be able to endure it. “Remember,” he told them, “that when the hour of vengeance comes, you must repay them as they have deserved.” After the gruesome slaughter, Pesach Kaplan lay in bed. For a few weeks he improved somewhat, then he lay down again – and this time he could no longer rise. He died with a curse on his lips against Hitler's Germany. For the distinguished deceased, the Judenrat arranged – at its own expense – a very large funeral, such as the ghetto had not yet seen until then. They wished to deliver eulogies for him, but the SS guard, which was patrolling around the cemetery gate, interfered and made it impossible. The many thousands who came to pay their last respects to the distinguished deceased returned with broken hearts, for they had lost a person who might have gone on to immortalize the most terrible events that have ever occurred in Jewish history. There is no second Pesach Kaplan. May his memory be honored!

Translator's note: I would like to note that a chapter with similar content - apparently by the same author - appears on page 74 of the English section of this Yizkor Book, under the title “The Death of Pejsach Kaplan.” However, this is a separate translation and a significant abridgement of the original text, prepared by Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick - or Rabbi Shmuel A. Kronick, as indicated on page VI. This version also contains several deviations from the original. Return

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