Parents who failed to send their daughters to work in the fields outside Bialystok were jailed. Judenrat Order 336, September 20, 1942, named some parents who were punished: Fejge Calewicz, 33 Fabryczna; Mire Antman, 9 Fabryczna; Rochel Kucharewski, 16 Biala; Itke Lipowski, 21 Kupiecka; Arje Lejb Ogurek, 5 Polna; Szmuel Eplbojm, 11 Neuwelt; Pesze Sibirski, 33 Polna. Nevertheless, mothers and fathers were reluctant to part with their daughters and risked whatever pun- ishment was in store for them. Married women obeyed the new regulations only in small numbers. Most were responsible for their families or were employed inside the ghetto. Consequently, the practical effect of the new rule applied exclusively to young girls. 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. The parents of these ‘“‘Wolkowisker girls’? were outraged and disconsolate. Other parents who still had their daughters with them used their connections with Christian Polish families outside the ghetto to hide them. The ghetto population was under the impression that a death warrant had already been issued by the Nazis for the entire Bialystok district, including the ghetto. Then, on October 31, the news spread that Bia- lystok would be saved but the towns surrounding it would be liquidated, including Wolkowisk. The parents of the three hundred girls sent to Wol- kowisk were convinced their daughters had been sent away for extermination together with the other citizens of that town. They and many others organized stormy demonstrations outside the Judenrat building, demand- ing of Barasz: ‘“‘Give us back our daughters.”’ Barasz assured the parents he was doing everything he could to save them. The demonstrations continued night and day without interruption. At last, Barasz’s efforts met with success. In announcement No. 367, the Judenrat informed the parents and relatives of the three hundred girls that they would be returned to Bialystok within a few days. On November 27, 1942, the ‘“‘Wolkowisker 2119" reap- peared in the ghetto, emaciated, malnourished and extremely frightened. They were saved from among thousands of others in Wolkowisk who were loaded upon trains to the Treblinka gas chambers. The Bialystoker Memorial Book Three Hangings at the End of 1942 Three executions by hanging were carried out in front of the Judenrat building in the Bialystok ghetto on December 31, 1942, New Year’s Eve. Much of the Jew- ish population was summoned to attend these proceed- ings as a ‘deterrent’? to further crimes. The three condemned Jews, Lipa Szczredrowski, Eli Dworski and Jakow Jablonski, who worked in a German cooking-oil factory, were accused of stealing quantities of sunflower seeds. Nazi guards were instructed to be vigilant about smuggling into the ghetto from factories outside. The Judenrat warned the Jews against this illegal practice. Nevertheless, a short time afterward, ten Jews entering the ghetto were caught with the contraband. The Gestapo commandant ordered Barasz to place these alleged criminals in the ghetto jail. After a brief trial, three of the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death on the gal- lows. The Judenrat Construction Department was immediately ordered to prepare for the executions. With great difficulty, the scaffold was erected. The three condemned men were placed atop stools, nooses were tightened around their necks, and the stools were kicked out from under them. One of the condemned asked to speak some final words, which the Nazis permitted. He shouted, “You murderous beasts, you Germans, are a so-called cul- tured people. You are robbers, animals in human form. You will pay for your crimes. You will lose the war.”’ Then the man spat in the direction of his 1 executioners. The Nazis greeted the New Year according to their custom, by getting drunk and shooting off their pistols and rifles. The Jews, on the other hand, had nothing but gloom in their hearts, suspecting that 1943 would be the last year of their existence. Reverberations of the Armed Revolt In the Warsaw Ghetto