D. Klimentovsky
EVACUATION TOWARD PRUZHANY [i]
...Byalistock Jews didn't have the privilege of enjoying tranquility. At the beginning of September
1941 expanded the terrible news that a certain "evacuation" will
happen in Byalistock Ghetto. Germans thought that the Ghetto - that had an approximate population of
60.000 souls - , was very small , and a part, some 13.000 souls, should be sent
to Pruzhany. To delete this norm, the Judenrat President BARASH gave huge amounts of money to German
power as well as taxes. The only thing that he could achieve, was to diminish
the quantity of Jews to be evacuated in 10.000 souls. This way - Germans
assured - the evacuation toward
Pruzhany was due by only a "simple reason", because in Pruzhany there
is a lot of empty place, because the population has been evacuated. The Judenrat should only prepare the lists of
people that will be transported.
Mainly fell in this transport,
people that didn't have a specialized work. Were sent to Pruzhany the
poorest population's part that didn't have money, protection, and widows to
whom Germans had "taken"
their men. The evacuation toward Pruzhany lasted two to three weeks. Were
transported in German load trucks, they could take some belongings, but when
ascending the trucks, they were controlled and all that Germans wanted for
them, took it. Judenrat should pay the
expenses of the transport that meant an important sum.
Of Byalistok, 10.000 Jews made this way the first step toward
extermination. Only a small quantity of them achieved to escape and enter again
Byalistok Ghetto. The others were transported of Pruzhany toward extermination
fields. January 28 1943 began the transports of Pruzhany's Guettto, and every
day were sent 2500 souls to Auschwitz...
...When arrived to Byalistok the first news of Pruzhany, that Jews indeed arrived and they lived although
under difficult conditions, but they lived, then Byalistock Ghetto began to be
tranquil again. It began to work and to live with the hope that as more intense
was the work in Byalistock, during more
time will remain the Ghetto.
[i] In a series of stories
published in our Pinkas, we point out about Byalistock Jews that were evacuated
toward Pruzhany's Ghetto. Next comes a fragment of the book by D. Klementovksy
"Life and extermination of the Byalistok Ghetto ", New York, 1946, in
which is told about this evacuation of Byalistock.