| Bialystok District Bezirk Bialystok | |
|---|---|
| Bezirk ofNazi Germany | |
| 1941–1945 | |
.svg) Flag | |
 Bialystok District in 1942 | |
| Capital | Bialystok |
| Area | |
| • Coordinates | 53°08′N23°09′E / 53.133°N 23.150°E /53.133; 23.150 |
| History | |
• Established | 1 August 1941 |
• Disestablished | 8 May 1945 |
| Political subdivisions | 8Kreise |
| Today part of | Poland Belarus Lithuania |
Bialystok District (German:Bezirk Bialystok)[1] was an administrative unit ofNazi Germany created during theWorld War II invasion of the Soviet Union. It was to the south-east ofEast Prussia, in present-day northeastern Poland as well as in smaller sections of adjacent present-dayBelarus andLithuania.[2] It was sometimes also referred to by the designationSouth East Prussia (German:Südostpreußen - see the map below) along with theRegierungsbezirk Zichenau, although in contrast to the latter, it was not incorporated into, but merely attached to East Prussia.
The territory lay to the east of theMolotov–Ribbentrop line and was consequently occupied by the Soviet Union and incorporated into theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the aftermath of theGerman attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the westernmost portion of Soviet Belarus (which, until 1939, belonged to thePolish state), was placed under the German Civilian Administration (Zivilverwaltungsgebiet). As Bialystok District, the area was under German rule from 1941 to 1944 without ever formally being incorporated into theGerman Reich.[2]
The district was established because of its perceived military importance as abridgehead on the far bank of theNeman.[3] Germany had desired to annex the area even during the First World War, based on the historical claim arising from theThird Partition of Poland, which had delegated Białystok toPrussia from 1795 to 1806 (seeNew East Prussia).[4] In contrast toother territories of Eastern Poland which were permanently annexed by the Soviet Union following the Second World War, most of the territory was later returned to Poland.[2]
After the start ofOperation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the invading Wehrmacht soldiers murdered 379 people, 'pacified' 30 villages, burned down 640 houses and 1,385 industrial buildings in the area.[5]Police Battalion 309 burned about 2000 Jews inGreat Synagogue, Białystok on 27 June 1941.
The first decree for the implementation of civil administration in these newly occupied territories was issued on 17 July 1941. It was announced that the Bialystok district would implement civil administration at a time to be determined.[6]
On 22 July, Hitler announced that from 1 August, Erich Koch would take over the Bialystok district and demarcate the borders of the district.[7] The borders of this area ran from the southeastern protrusion ofEast Prussia (theSuwalki triangle) following theNeman River up toMosty (excludingGrodno), includingVolkovysk andPruzhany up to theBug River to the west ofBrest-Litovsk and then following the border of theGeneral Government to East Prussia.[2]
Bialystok District was established on 1 August 1941.[8] It was simultaneously excluded from the operational zones of the German Army in the Soviet Union. At the same time, some small areas to the east of the 1939–1941 German-Soviet border were incorporated into the East Prussian district of Scharfenwiese (nowOstrołęka). With this the city of Scharfenwiese henceforth held more hinterland to the east.[2]
On 1 August,Erich Koch took over the Białystok district and subsequently,[7] on 15 August, he was appointed asChief of Civil Administration (Chef der Zivilverwaltung) of Bialystok District.[9][10] During this period, he also was theGauleiter of theGau East Prussia,Oberpräsident of the PrussianProvince of East Prussia, andReichskommissar inReichskommissariat Ukraine. Day-to-day activities were handled by his permanent deputy head of theNazi Party inKönigsberg, East Prussia,Waldemar Magunia from 15 August 1941 to 31 January 1942. He was replaced from 1 February 1942 to 27 July 1944 byFriedrich Brix, Landrat (District Mayor) ofTilsit.
In addition, SS and security forces were under the direct command of theSS and Police Leader (SSPF) of the District. This officer commanded all SS personnel and police in his jurisdiction, including theOrdnungspolizei (Orpo; regular uniformed police), theSD (intelligence service) and theSiPo (security police), which included theGestapo (secret police). The commanders were SS-StandartenführerWerner Fromm (January 1942 – January 1943), SS-BrigadeführerOtto Hellwig (May 1943 – July 1944) and SS-OberführerHeinz Roch (July – October 1944). The SSPF reported to the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) ofRussland Mitte (Central Russia) headquartered inMogilev until July 1943 and thereafter inMinsk. This was SS-ObergruppenführerErich von dem Bach-Zelewski (May 1941 – June 1944) and then SS-ObergruppenführerCurt von Gottberg (June – August 1944).[11]
The center of administration for the district was the Polish city ofBiałystok. The area had a population of 1,383,000 inhabitants, which included 980,000 (70.9%) ethnicPoles, 200,000 (14.5%)Belarusians, 120,000 (8.7%)Jews, 80,000 (5.8%)Ukrainians, and 2,000 (0.1%) ethnicGermans.
Shortly after the front passed, engineer Czesław Chaniawko (delegated by the Belarusian pro-German circles) arrived from Warsaw to Białystok, who led to the establishment of the Belarusian National Committee. The next chairman of the committee was Teodor Ilyashevich, who later also headed the Belarusian Union (established in the first half of 1943 from the transformation of the Belarusian Committee). The committee mainly focused on Belarusian intelligentsia, and a significant part of the Orthodox clergy cooperated with it. He undertook intensive propaganda activities and in the fields of education and culture, and at the end of March 1942 he published the weeklyNowaya Daroga (Belarusian:Новая дарога)). Belarusian activists also took on a number of functions in the strictly subordinated to German administrative authorities, including becoming mayors in Białystok (Wasyl Łukaszyk), Bielsk Podlaski (Jarosław Kostycewicz) and Narewka (Piotr Kabac).[12]
Until the end of July 1941, the city of Białystok was under controlled byWehrmacht, it was then subordinated to the civil administration. Shortly before the handover, GeneralMax von Schenckendorff, commander ofArmy Group Centre Rear Area ordered theOrder Police battalions, which were part ofPolice Regiment Centre, to embark on pacification operations against civilians in the Białystok district. On 25 July 1941, police units commanded by Colonel Max Montua forced 183 families from the villages ofBudy,Pogorzelce, andTeremiski in theBiałowieża Forest. They were forcibly moved toPruzhany. The next day, they drove 1,240 people out of the villages around Narewka. In the following days, further populations from the towns of Leśna, Mikłaszew, Olchówka and Zabrod were made to leave. Another 1133 people were displaced to the vicinity of Zabłudów. The brutalPolice Battalion 322 burned 12 Polish and Belarusian villages, shot 42 people in theLacka Forest nearWaniek and more in theOsuszek forest near the village ofPiliki.[5]
Heinrich Himmler visited the newly formed Bialystok District on 30 June 1941 and pronounced that more forces were needed in the area, due to potential risks of partisan warfare. The chase after the Red Army's rapid retreat left behind a security vacuum, which required the urgent deployment of additional personnel.[13] Scrambling to meet this "new threat", Gestapo headquarters formedKommando SS Zichenau-Schroettersburg which departed from sub-station Schröttersburg (Płock) under the leadership of SS-ObersturmführerHermann Schaper (born 1911) with express mission to murder Jews, communists and the NKVD collaborators across the local villages and towns. On 3 July additional formation ofSchutzpolizei arrived in Białystok, summoned from the General Government. It was led by SS-HauptsturmführerWolfgang Birkner, veteran ofEinsatzgruppe IV from thePolish Campaign of 1939. The relief unit, calledKommando Bialystok,[14] was sent in by SS-ObersturmbannfuhrerEberhard Schöngarth on orders from theReich Security Main Office (RSHA), due to reports of Soviet guerrilla activity in the area with Jews being of course immediately suspected of helping them out.[15] The first stage of the Nazi persecutions mainly involved applying collective punishment to various villages where any form of real-or-imagined threat had been identified. Terror operations were enacted to prevent assistance to independence movements but mostly to round-up and persecute local Jews. Targeted buildings were being destroyed, possessions robbed, communities mass murdered or sent to labor camps or prisons. SS-Gruppenführer Nebe reported to Berlin on 14 November 1941 that, up to then 45,000 persons had been eliminated.[5]
The situation of the local population did improve after theRaid on Mittenheide. The Germans introduced the policy of finding and forcing anyone who could be of German ancestry, even based on the "pure German looks" in some cases, to accept the German ancestry card (usually 4th category "The Traitors of the German Nation," in spite of the ominous-sounding name, it meant elevation above the rest of the population). The Germans were harkening back to the times of theNew East Prussia.[2]
On 1 November 1941, the city ofGrodno (location of theGrodno Ghetto set up at the same time)[16] including its surroundings, were transferred from theReichskommissariat Ostland to Bialystok.
Already on 27 June 1941, a camp forSoviet prisoners of war was established in Bialystok named Stalag 57. On 1 August 1942, it was renamedStalag 316. It was located in the former barracks of the10th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment at 70 Kawaleryjska Street. It was the first one of its kind, except for the makeshift camp that was set up in September 1939 in the building of the Secondary School No. 6. Up to twelve thousand people could stay there at one time. Prisoners were used for construction works at the nearby"Krywlany" airport. Tens of thousands of people passed through the camp, of which approximately 3,000 were killed. After its liquidation in 1943, a transit camp was set up there for the Jewish population. Several other camps were also established: a transitional camp for people taken to forced labor into the Third Reich consisting of 3 barracks, a penal camp in Starosielce located in the triangle between the railway lines Białystok - Ełk and Białystok - Warsaw, and the "Zielona" penal camp located between Zaścianki and the Skorupa district where people were arrested for violating German regulations, such as being late for work or alcohol abuse.
Following the German occupation, most Jews had been rounded up and forced into some 60ghettos throughout the District. On 2 November 1942 Nazi SS and police forces, in a coordinated operation with help from the local gendarmerie, suddenly encircled and quarantined all the ghettos. Between November 1942 and February 1943, approximately 100,000 Jews in the District, including some 10,000 from Bialystok proper, were sent to theTreblinka andAuschwitz death camps. The final liquidation of theBialystok Ghetto took place in August 1943, when the remaining 30,000 Jews there were sent to be murdered.[17]
TheHome Army operated within the Bialystok District. Aside from attacking the occupying forces, it ran intelligence and propaganda networks and collected aV2-rocket, parts of which weretransported to London. TheNational Armed Forces branch was established in the region, with the initiative to establish the NSZ came from theMilitary Organization Lizard Union. The Lizard Union envoy, 2nd Lt. Feliks Mazurek, pseudonym "Zych", began talks with representatives of theArmed Confederation [pl]. As a result of the talks, theNational Armed Forces branch was established in the region. Initially, the ranks of this organization included the Białystok ZJ and KZ Districts, as well as small groups from the Eastern Combat Organization, theDefenders of Poland Command, the Union for the Reconstruction of the Republic, and the Home Army.
During the night of 15–16 August 1943, theBiałystok Ghetto Uprising began. This was an insurrection in Poland'sBiałystok Ghetto by several hundred Polish Jews who began an armed struggle against the German troops finishing off the liquidation of the people still living in the Ghetto. This Ghetto's victims were ultimately destined for theTreblinka extermination camp. It was organized and led byAntyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa, an organisation that was part of theAnti-Fascist Block, and was the second largestghetto uprising, after theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising, in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.[2]
In July 1943, theStriking Cadre Battalions units, active inBezirk Bialystok, consisted of five Battalions. Altogether, there were 200 fighters, and during a number of skirmishes with the Germans (including theRaid on Mittenheide in 1943), 138 of them were killed. These heavy losses were criticized by the headquarters of theHome Army, who claimed that the UBK was profusely using lives of young Polish soldiers. On 17 August 1943, upon the order of GeneralTadeusz Bor-Komorowski, the UBK was included into theHome Army. Soon afterwards, all battalions were transferred to the area ofNowogródek.
On 20 October 1943, the southern border between the East Prussian district Sudauen (Suwałki) in the Province of East Prussia and the Bialystok District was adjusted and moved back to the northern side of theAugustów Canal.
In preparation for theOperation Tempest, smaller groups in Białystok District also joined the Home Army, but with significant clandestine achievements to their credit, such as the Independent Poland and the Combat Organization "Wschód". After the arrest in April 1943 and subsequent execution inNowosiółki of W. Praga andMieczysław Blahuszewski [pl], the activities of thePolish People's Party and the Peasant Battalions ceased. Polish socialists had already dispersed earlier, and in general, in theterritories incorporated into the USSR in 1939, no units of theGwardia Ludowa and thePeople's Army or thePolish Workers' Party were formed. However, after the severe blows inflicted by the Soviet occupier, the political structures of the nationalists were partially reborn.[18] Initially, the strongest was theNational Military Organization, but it was broken up by the NKVD in 1940, so the youth group moved to theMilitary Organization Lizard Union the following year. In January 1944, the region's Home Army began participating inOperation Tempest launching a series of uprisings throughout Białystok. In July and August 1944, the territory of Bialystok District was taken over by theRed Army up to the Narew-Bobr line. The government seat for the Chief of Civil Administration was then moved toBartenstein. In January 1945, the Red Army overran the last areas of Bialystok District, namely the remaining parts of the districtsŁomża andGrajewo, driving the Germans completely out of the territory.
At the end of May 1944, theGovernment Delegate for the Białystok Voivodeship, Józef Przybyszewski, a prominent activist of the National Party, arrived in Białystok. The Białystok Voivode settled in theSt. Roch rectory with FatherAdam Abramowicz, who provided him with all-round assistance. Przybyszewski, wanting to strengthen national influence in the ranks of the Home Army, led to the commencement of talks between representatives of the district commands of NOW and NSZ in 1944. The talks led to the unification of both organizations. The talks were facilitated by the situation in the National Armed Forces. The division into NSZ-ZJ and NSZ-AK also affected the District. Boleslaw Kozlowski ("Grot") and Waclaw Nestorowicz ("Kalina"), opponents of Stanislaw Nakoniecznikow ("Kilinski") sided with NSZ-NOW. The envoy of the NSZ-AK Headquarters established a new district command, appointing Captain Waclaw Nestorowicz as acting commander. Meanwhile, in Białystok, Roman Jastrzebski ("Ślepowron"), supported by supporters of Stanislaw Nakoniecznikow ("Kmicic"), took over as commander. There were therefore two district commands of NSZ. The organizational breakdown and chaos reigning in the ranks of this organization facilitated an agreement between the two national organizations, while at the same time giving the NOW activists an advantage.[19]
The final liquidation of the Bialystok Ghetto took place in August 1943, when the remaining 30,000 Jews there were sent to extermination.
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