because up until then, the Jews who were hiding sub- sisted only on vegetables from the Judenrat gardens. That evening, it was learned that many women and children had succeeded in gaining admittance to the factories as the workers were packing the machines into cartons. These workers claimed that the women and children belonged to them, thereby bringing them under the protection of the factory. The Gestapo guards didn’t believe these claims but nevertheless permitted them to remain in the factories, since in any event they would not escape alive. The Second Week of the Massacre On Monday, August 23, 1943, the second week of the Bialystok ghetto liquidation, the Gestapo dis- patched smaller search and destroy teams because they realized the remaining number of Jews was quite small. But these diminished squads availed themselves of new tactics in exposing concealed Jews. They began search- ing the garbage cans to determine whether fresh refuse had been deposited and checked the stoves in the houses to spot recent fires. These clever methods only stimulated the Jews to increase their own caution and vigilance in carrying out their cooking activities at night. Once the factory machines and the merchandise had been fully packed for transfer out of the ghetto, Fried! decided he no longer needed the 2,000 Jewish workers conscripted for this task. After spending a full day cramped in the mini ghetto, they were taken on Tuesday at 12 noon to the railroad station, where the women and children were placed in the rear section of the train, while the young men were loaded into the front area. The cars containing the women and children were sent to Treblinka and the young men in the for- ward section were transported to Lublin-Poniatow. Arriving in Treblinka, the women and children were forced out of the cars, attacked and beaten by workers in the camp. Before they knew it, they were sent into the so-called ‘“‘showers,’ from which they never returned. The men arrived in Lublin two days later, after a grueling journey in which many had been shot or trampled. A thousand people, comprising tailors, cobblers and other tradesmen, left Lublin for Blyzin, which was a work camp. Many believed Blyzin was worse than a concentration camp, because the combina- tion of hard labor, the bitter winter cold, hunger and illness, caused hundreds of deaths. Despite the energetic efforts of the wagon drivers to remove the bodies in the streets, they could not quite finish the job because new victims fell every day. In the Mini Ghetto Life in the mini ghetto was filled with suspense, depression and confusion. Every few hours the Nazis 96 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. The wagon drivers, who had been carting the machines and raw materials out of the ghetto, informed the Jews of the mini ghetto that these materials were destined for Lublin-Poniatow, which everyone knew was a work camp. Everyone hoped that when the mini ghetto was evacuated, the Jews would be sent to Ponia- tow, where they could continue living until the hoped- for liberation. It was widely felt that if the ghetto continued existing for at least another few months, the Jews of Bialystok could be saved. Reports reached the ghetto that the Soviet Union had launched a massive offensive in July 1943, and that its forces might well descend upon Bialystok in a couple of months. In any event, the ghetto was completely liquidated at the end of August and those Jews sent to Poniatow were exter- minated shortly afterward. | The following were among those who were in the mini ghetto: Rabbi and Mrs. Rozenman and their two daughters; Mr. and Mrs. Barasz and son; Mr. and Mrs. Izak Markus and children; Mr. and Mrs. Liman and son; Dow Subotnik; and almost all the factory manag- ers and their assistants. On Wednesday, August 25, the number of Nazi soldiers carrying out search operations decreased from 400 to 200. About 500 to 600 Jews remained in the bunkers. New tactics were used to ferret out the hold- outs, including measuring the buildings from inside and outside to see whether all the floors were of equal length and width. Should any discrepancy in the mea- surements be detected, the Nazis thereby would be able to discover a shelter. Not too many new Jews were found by these methods. The Final Journey of the Children The last 1,200 ghetto children were evacuated from Bialystok in the final days of August 1943. Under the supervision of Gestapo officers, physicians and women volunteers, these children were transported in closed railroad cars to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, where they were isolated in separate barracks. None of the other inmates of the camp were allowed to come in contact with them, on penalty of death.