carrying her child was discovered among the inhabi- tants. In panic, she threw her child into an adjacent well. One of the Gestapo soldiers who saw this horrible scene ordered three Jewish policemen to save the child. One of them, at great risk to himself, descended into the deep well and, with great effort, brought the child to the surface. Afterward, the Nazi soldier did every- thing possible to save the child’s life. While all this was going on, an elderly woman emerged from the shelter and the Nazi wanted to arrest her. But the Jewish police told him that the child’s mother had already been taken away, her destination Treblinka. The Gestapo officer agreed that the elderly woman should carry the child to the nearest hospital and take the place of its mother. * * * Abramczyk, an orphan residing at the orphanage at 7 Czestochower Street, tried to persuade the other orphans to commit suicide because, failing this, they could look forward to a painful death in the gas chambers. Only two other orphans obeyed him, the three hanging themselves at the entrance to the orphan- age. As it turned out, their death saved all the other children in the institution. Despite the Red Cross emblazoned on the front of the building, the Nazis did not hesitate to enter. But as they beheld the macabre scene — three young children hanging by the neck — the soldiers left the premises with bowed heads, even their ruthless hearts unable to inflict any more damage in this place. Some one hundred orphans escaped immediate extermination as a result of their three friends’ bravery. 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. Almost every day, Barasz tried to intervene with the Gestapo to save prominent Jewish leaders such as A.S. Herszberg, the historian of Bialystok, Awrom Tyktin, former head of the Jewish community, and his nieghbor, Dr. Bejlin. All these efforts were unavailing. After about 6,000 Jews flowed into the factories seeking refuge, the shelters became more roomy and slightly more comfortable. It was now possible to take a nap and the women found it easier to re-enter their homes to cook food for their families. By Friday, February 12, it became apparent that the Gestapo had reached its quota of 12,000 victims and that the “‘February action’”’ was coming to an end. On Saturday, February 13, there were no further liqui- 86 dations or roundups. People began to walk the streets of the ghetto in larger numbers and with less inhibition. In the hiding places, life had previously been impossi- ble. People had slept alongside dead bodies. Had the carnage continued even one more day, it is doubtful that many who were hiding would have survived. Now people were leaving the bunkers like Noah and his fam- ily from the ark after the flood. The realization that the terror had finally ended brought relief and joy to the survivors. People kissed each other and wept. The appearance of the streets, however, left eve- ryone in a state of shock. Homes were robbed, their walls torn down and their roofs chopped apart. Some families were wiped out. Dead bodies were strewn about. A significant number of suicides by poison was discovered as well as bodies of dead children smothered by their mothers. In other places, Jews had hanged themselves. The grief, the wailing and the sorrow were indescribable. A collective surge of anger developed when it became known certain Jews had informed against other Jews. The Jewish police, who knew the identities of the traitors, arrested three and technically charged them with robbery, which was punishable by death under Nazi rules. After the three were beaten, they were hanged; their bodies were left on the gallows for three days so all the Jews could see what happened to informers. People were ashamed that among them could be found such evil. Throughout the Sunday after the end of the ‘‘Feb- ruary action,’ men, women and children ran wild through the streets looking for relatives. Many went to the ghetto cemetery, where heaps of corpses were piled up. People recognized some of their relatives in these grim mounds, and the tragic scenes that ensued were heartbreaking. Cantor Czudin (former cantor of Neuwelt Bet Mid- rash), who in the last few years was the only one to recite memorial prayers at Bagnowke Cemetery, told friends half-jokingly that he did not wish to be laid to rest at Bagnowke. He died of a heart attack during the liquidation and was buried at the Zabia cemetery.

The statistics of that week in February 1943 reveal the extent of the Nazi brutality: about 2,000 Jews were shot in the ghetto. Six thousand were sent to Treblinka, where virtually no one survived. Several scores of Jews, after enduring the living hell of Auschwitz, did manage to remain alive. The Painful Aftermath of the February Slaughter Mordechaj Tenenbaum-Tamarof described 06 feelings of the survivors of the “February action” as they emerged from their shelters: ‘Finally, one begins to comprehend the full grue- someness of the past few days; scores of madmen are The Bialystoker Memorial Book