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Bialystok
Bialystok [Yiddish, Bialistok] - Granted its
town charter in 1749, Bialystok was owned by the Branickis,
and served
as their family seat. The Jews were invited to the town in
the second
half of the seventeenth century; their presence was first
noted in a
document from 1658. In the beginning, the Community was
under the
jurisdiction of the kahal in Tykocin; in 1745, it gained
full
independence. In 1765, according to the census, there were
761 Jews
living in Bialystok; by 1799, there were already 1788
(almost 50% of the
town's total residents). Beginning in 1795, Bialystok was
under the
Prussian partition; after 1809, it fell under Russian rule.
In the nineteenth century, the city became an important
hub for the
textile industry as the center of the Bialystok Industrial
District. The
development of the textile industry prompted the
introduction of
customs duties on textile products manufactured in the
Kingdom of Poland
that were then exported to Russia proper. In order to avoid
these fees,
the textile plants in the Kingdom were moved to the
Bialystok District.
During this period, the Bialystok Jewish Community became
one of the
most influential in all the lands of the old Commonwealth.
The railroad
links to Warsaw and Petersburg also spurred economic
development, and
the population increased several times over.
Jews began arriving who had been forced to leave the
guberniia that
lay outside the pale of settlement, as well as those from
nearby small
towns and villages who came in search of work in the large
factories.
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In 1878, over 20,000 Jews were living in
Bialystok, or 59% of its total residents. In 1895, this
figure was
47,000 (76%). In 1899, Jews owned 299 of the 372 textile
manufacturing
plants, most of which were small workshops producing cheap,
low-quality
textiles. In the late nineteenth century, Bialystok became
an important
center of Jewish political life. In 1880, the Zionist group
Mizrachi was
founded there, led by Rabbi S. Mohilewer. Beginning in 1897,
the Bund
party was active in Bialystok as well, and published a
newspaper, Der
Bialistoker Arbaiter (Yiddish, The Bialystok Worker). There
were also
Jewish unions and professional organizations. The city
became a
significant cultural center. The Haskalah wielded a strong
influence
there, and there were many progressive Jewish schools, as
well as sports
and youth organizations.
On June 3, 1906, Bialystok was the scene of a violent
pogrom
instigated by the tsarist secret police, the okhrana.
Seventy people
died, and ninety were wounded. In the early twentieth
century, the city
began to lose its importance as an industrial center. Many
of its
residents decided to move in search of work, mostly to the
United
States, where they founded organizations for Jews from
Bialystok.
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Although emigration meant the proportion of
Jews in Bialystok's total population fell significantly, the
city
remained home to one of the largest Jewish communities in
interwar
Poland. In 1932, there were approximately 39,000 Jews living
in
Bialystok, or 52% of its population.
In 1939, the city found itself under Soviet occupation.
After the
Germans entered on July 26, 1941, a ghetto was created,
which grouped
together Jews from the surrounding area and held a total of
40,000
people. In November 1942, M. Tenenbaum, sent from the Warsaw
ghetto,
managed to enter the ghetto in Bialystok; his mission was to
organize a
resistance movement. In February 1943, during the first
liquidation
action, at which time approximately 10,000 people were sent
to
Treblinka, an attempt was made to wage an armed resistance.
During the
final liquidation of the ghetto on August 16, 1943, there
was an
uprising, led by Tenenbaum and D. Moskowicz. After it
failed, both
committed suicide. In the course of five days, all the
ghetto's
residents were sent to the Treblinka and Majdanek death
camps.
After the Second World War, a Jewish Committee was
active in
Bialystok until 1947, as well as numerous cultural,
religious and
professional institutions. Currently, the city has no Jewish
organizations. Only one synagogue remains in Bialystok,
dating back to
the early twentieth century, the "Beit Shmuel", which today
houses a
sports center; one of the five original cemeteries remains,
which has
several thousand graves.
(H.W., G.Z./CM)
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