Security Police Plans to Allow 30,000 Jewish Workers to Remain in Bialystok
(February-March 1943)
..The representative of the Security Police Commander
stated at this discussion that it was not expected that there would
be any further resettlement of Jews for the time being. The continued
presence of 30,000 Jews in the ghetto was likely until the end of the
war. This fact would have to be taken into account from the point of
view of the economy, as the Reich Security Main Office ( Reichssicherheitshauptamt
) was expected to accede to this attitude of the local Security Police.
This created a new picture for the labor position
and the maintenance of economic productivity.
1.The ghetto will remain, with new borders, but roughly
the same size.
2.Factories situated within the ghetto would continue
to operate, but with Jewish personnel.
3.Without any connection with the tasks of the city
in the future peace, it is the target of the political and Security
Police to have the 4,000 Jews outside the ghetto disappear [from the
Aryan side] in the near future and work only in the ghetto....
The local Security Police intends to allow the ghetto
to remain for the time being and in a certain size: the Reich Security
Main Office in Berlin is to take a final decision in the matter in the
course of the month.
Source: Yad Vashem Archives, M11/26.
* From documents dated February and March 1943, found
in the Underground archives of the Bialystok
ghetto.
Source: Yad Vashem |