Przygotowania do zbrojnego oporu w getcie białostockim od listopada 1942 roku do sierpnia 1943 roku

Abstract

At the beginning of November 1942 Mordechaj Tenenbaum-Tamarof, representative of the Jewish National Committee in Warsaw, arriveid in the Białystok Ghetto. Upon his arrival the preparations for armed resistance were hastened. Till then there had been relative peace in the Ghetto. Also starvation here was not as bad as in other large Ghettoes. Tamarof's arrival coincided in time with the suppression of smaller Ghettoes in the Białystok region. This fact also intensified preparations for resistance. Tamarof attempted to reach all factions in the Ghetto to make his activity national. He also documented German crimes and Jewish holocaust, creating archives second in their kind after the Rigenblum's archives in the Warsaw Ghetto. In may 1943 the archives were taken outside the Ghetto and handed to Dr Filipowski, officer of Home Army (AK). Acquiring weapons was extremely difficult. There were attempts within the Ghetto to produce explosives, hand-grenades and bottles with igniting liquids in secret laboratories. Difficulties arose also with reconciling political opponents in order to carry on common resistance. March 1943 brought reconciliation and cooperation of political groups, while in June 1943 they joined into one fighting organization. In February 1943 the Germans carried out a large-scale displacement action. 10 000 persons were removed from the Ghettoes to extermination camps. No larger resistance took place then. Armed action was not possibule due to insufficient preparation, lack of weapons and external support. It was known that this was not a final definite destruction yet and none of the groups wanted the responsibility of bringing it up. At the meeting on 27th February an alternative was considered whethen to figh in the Ghetto or to go out to the forest. It was decided to fight within the Ghetto. Tamarof believed that after completing their duty in the Ghetto, those fighters who would remain alive, should continue fighting in the forest. The Home Army regional command refused to provide Jewish fighters with weapons. The plans for resistance assumed quick attacks at the Germans by the gates and storming the fences to get out of the Ghetto and in to the Supraśl forest, where groups of Jewish partisans, refugees from the Ghettoes and transports, operated. When these groups united and new refugees appeared, the squad Forojs (Forward) of about a hundred fighters was organized. The squad operated near Białystok since the ghetto was its only souroe of supplies; at the same time the squad was supposed to help the Ghetto during the uprising. The Germans started the action against the Ghetto during the night of the 15th and 16th August 1943. Prepared weapons and explosives were insufficient to arm even a few hundred fighters. The plan to break through to the forest failed. The Germans used tanks and artillery. The fighters retreated to earlier prepared bunkers from which they attempted to disturb the enemy. The leaders of the uprising died in action or committed suicides. Officialy the Germans closed the action on the 20th of August, but the sounds of shooting were heard much longer while remaining bunkers were discovered. The fight of the Jewish people took place in almost complete isolation from the ·rest of the society, the majority of which - unfortunately - was quite indifferent to the fate of the Jews. It was not a fight of free people, but of the outlawed prisoners, doomed to failure. Practical achievements of the armed resistance were insignificant. They failed to lower the number of victims or inflict serious damages to the Germans. But the Ghetto fighters should be regarded as national horoos in terms of their sacrifice and maral strength which remain in history as a voice of protest and resistance against fate.