Barasz

... entered, checking papers to discover whether anyone was there without permission. Chairman Barasz was warned after each inspection that if even one person was found without proper credentials, all 700 inhabi- tants would be shot. Regardless of the harsh security, a number of Jews sneaked into the mini ghetto at night seeking relief from the horrible conditions in the hideouts. ...

... At 5 o’clock, it was learned that Barasz had been told all the Jews of Bialystok, together with the machines and the factories, would be transferred to Lublin, where they would carry on their work. An order was issued that all Jews who lived on Polna, Neu- welt, Czestochower, Bialostoczaner, Okrongle, Szlia- checzke, Linas Hatzedek, Czysta, Zytnia, Zamenhof, Kupiecka, Geldowa and nearby streets, must report to depots at Jurowcer, Fabryczna, Czepla, Nowogrudska, Chmielna and the Judenrat gardens at 9 o’clock in the morning for transfer to the railroad station. Those not complying with this deadline would be shot if found in the prohibited areas. It thus became clear to everyone that the entire ghetto was targeted for destruction. Already at seven in the morning, it was impossible to pass through the streets because so many thousands of Jews were painstakingly making their way toward the depots. ...

... The new practice of forcing Jews to become informers against other Jews turned out to be an effec- tive tool. Many more victims were found in their hideouts. Moreover, the increasing number of dead bodies was fast filling the ghetto streets. Barasz was ordered by the Gestapo to clear the streets of this Jew- ish “‘litter.”” He instructed the Chevra Kadisha (burial society) to recruit several hundred assistants to help them bury the dead. This proved an ingenious method for these people to save themselves from imminent execution. ...

... Barasz knew the Nazis meant what they said. He sent word to Malmed to give himself up and thereby save thousands of Jewish lives. As soon as Malmed heard, he surrendered himself to the Nazis. ...

... At the end of January 1943, rumors spread that Chairman Barasz of the Judenrat had received an order from the Gestapo to put together a list of 12,000 Jews, ostensibly for work assignments. These disturbing reports only increased the tension among the people, who already understood that catastrophe was near. ...

The Nazi soldier accidently shot by his colleague whom Malmed had blinded was carried to the Judenrat building, and his body was placed on Barasz’s desk. Fried! then proclaimed to Barasz, ''566 what your Jew- ish criminals have done. Now we shall take revenge. ...

... The Judenrat under Barasz was determined to save the Bialystok ghetto at all costs. It was suspected that in his dealings with the Nazi command, Barasz conveyed his feeling the provincial towns be sacrificed before Bia- lystok. The Judenrat, therefore, dispatched a platoon of Jewish policemen to round up about three hundred young girls, loading them on wagons to Wolkowisk to gather potatoes in the fields. When people in the ghetto learned that Jewish police participated in capturing young Jewish girls against their will, they were revolted. That the Judenrat should be an accomplice in this shameful act was, in retrospect, thought by some to have been the forerunner of the even more disgraceful cooperation of the Jewish police with the Nazis in beginning the ghetto’s liquidation in February 1943. ...

... Various theories arose concerning the Nazis’ motive in reducing the ghetto area. Some felt the local German command wished to keep the ghetto going for a while longer and, as a quid pro quo for this extension, had to take measures that would seem harsh to their superiors in Berlin. Others, including Barasz, felt that the authorities in Germany planned to settle 5,000 Aryans in Bialystok and needed the place for them. Barasz was convinced that if he and the Judenrat volun- tarily surrendered some ghetto territory, it would appease the Nazis. His compromise perhaps delayed the liquidation of the Bialystok ghetto. But he failed to foresee that this action and other steps could not ulti- mately save the ghetto and its inhabitants. The end was approaching. ...