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.