Bialystok Judenrat

... 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. ...

... Because of Rabbi Rozenman’s advanced age and poor health, he was forced to resign and was succeeded by Vice-Chairman Barasz, who continued as Chairman of the Judenrat until March 1943. Others on the Juden- rat presidium were: B. Subotnik, finances; J. Goldberg, and Liman, administrators and heads of rationing. Barasz was considered by many the dictator of the ghetto. Actually, he was the only one able to carry ona successful liaison between the Nazis and the Jews. He deftly encouraged the Germans to reduce the severity of their requirements and, on the other hand, insisted that the Jews avoid any pretext that could be used by the ...