Bialystoczanska Street

... At first the Nazis defined the ghetto area as several small streets, in the poor Jewish section, whose limited space would have imposed impossible hardships on the victims, with no chance of survival in such conditions. After the Judenrat intervened, however, promising the Nazis additional contributions of jewelry and other val- uables, the Germans agreed to extend the ghetto over a wider area, including Czestochowska, Polna, Kupiecka, Lipowa, Czepla, Jurowecka, Fabryczna, Bialysto- czanska, Neuwelt and the adjacent streets. The Jews were given just three days to abandon their homes and move into the ghetto. ...

... ‘“At four in the morning on Thursday, July 3, the Nazis dragged from their homes men from the ages of 16 to 60. They closed off the following streets: Przejarz, Grochowa, Krakowska, Dambrowski, Kupiecka, Zamenhof, Bialystoczanska, Ruzanski, Zydowska, Bronska, Geldowa and Lipowa. Many foresaw what was coming and were able to hide. Approximately a thousand of the arrested men were lined up for ‘selec- tion.” [Who would live and who would die.] Workmen and artisans able to show callouses on their hands were separated from the rest and freed. The others, members of the intelligentsia and merchants, were detained. They were tortured all night and into the morning. Finally two hundred were loaded onto a truck that headed out of town. From that moment on, every trace of those Jews disappeared. It later became known that these two hundred were shot by the Nazis at Pietrasze Field, approximately two kilometers outside the city in the direction of Waszlykowa. They included: Dr. Jakow Rajfer; Wajnszel, instructor at Druskeniki Gymnasium; Aron Murkis, instructor at Zeligman Gymnasium; the merchant Rotsztejn and his son; Berl ...