Kres żydowskiej enklawy Białegostoku i Regionu w niemieckiej ikonografii z lat 1939–1943

Abstract

The attack on Poland by Nazi Germany on 1 September 1939 marked the beginning of the most tragic period in the history of the Polish Jews. The German army, entering the borders of the Second Polish Republic, advanced rapidly eastwards. Before they reached Bialystok, they encountered cities, towns and villages where Jewish enclaves had existed and functioned for centuries. Bialystok and the surrounding region, like other places in Poland, was teeming with the bustle, culture and orthodoxy of the Jewish faith. Therefore, the Jews encountered there became not only an immediate object of interest, but also a target – captured by German lenses. The photographic records made by the Germans since September 1939 (presented in the article) have become a silent and important archival source. This iconography partly provides a picture of the enclave of Bialystok’s Jews in the city and the region, but also reports on the everyday life of the ghetto that was later established there. As if in a kaleidoscope, the author presents photo after photo – during the warfare of September 1939 and from June 1941 to the end of the enclave in August 1943. All the photographs are supplemented with factual content, introducing the reader to the last days of the lost world. Throughout the range of photographs included below, two images stand out – the one that has not yet been affected by the war and the one that is coming to an end. In the scenes captured by the German cameras, we notice the selection of people and places, in keeping with the ideological formation and world-view of the young soldiers. In the pictures presented below, the pattern of the Jew – the ‘subhuman’ – is captured. However, in addition to the selection of people, we also notice the environment in which he lived, worked and resided.