Gestapo committee visit to the ghetto

... In mid-July, 1943, a rumor circulated that an impor- tant Gestapo committee would arrive in the ghetto, which was awaited with the greatest apprehension. On that day practically no one appeared in the streets. Word had it that this committee would be the last, its decision final as to whether the ghetto would live or die. It seemed as though the Nazis had to choose between the two remaining larger ghettos: Lodz, with its more than 80,000 Jews, and Bialystok, with its 40,000. One of these ghettos would surely be promptly destroyed by the Nazi murderers. After the visit by the committee, Efrajim Barasz confided in his closest associates that he was not optimistic. This cryptic assessment made it clear that Lodz would be left alone and that Bialystok was Slated for liquidation. Some members of the Juden- rat, however, still clung to the hope that somehow a final tragedy could be averted. ...