Testimony of Jakow Fabricki, born in Kolno, Poland regarding chronological events in the Bialystok Ghetto

Testimony of Jakow Fabricki, born in Kolno, Poland regarding chronological events in the Bialystok Ghetto 

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Testimony of Jakow Fabricki, born in Kolno, Poland regarding chronological events in the Bialystok Ghetto German occupation of Bialystok, 27 June 1941; burning of Jews in their homes and in the burning synagogue; attempts of Jews to escape to the Soviet Union; establishment of the Judenrat headed by Rabbi Dr. Israel Roseman; murder of approximately 3,500 men on"Blac" Saturday; levying of a forced contribution; forced labor outside the ghetto; establishment of various Jewish institutions; Jewish police in the ghetto; informers in the ghetto; harsh conditions and hunger; deportation of Jews from approximately 75 villages and towns in the areas outlying Bialystok to camps and prisons; deportation of approximately 100,000 Jews to extermination camps; escape of Jews to forests and hiding places; final extermination of the Jews from the outlying areas that lasted 30 days; robbery of property; hunger, cold, illness and persecutions, December 1942; suicides; attempts to escape from the trains; rescue of special professionally skilled people by the German Wehrmacht authorities; deportation of 4,000 Bialystok Jews to Pruzana; extermination of the Jews of Pruzana; setting up life in the Bialystok Ghetto; work outside the ghetto; commerce, smuggling of food and so on; first"Aktio" in the ghetto under the command of Fritz Friedel, the war criminal, 05 February 1943 ; cooperation by the Jewish police in concentrating the Jews and their deportation to their deaths; separation between able-bodied professionally skilled Jews and other Jews; murder of Jews in the streets; heroic act of Melamed, the Jew, who succeeded in causing the death of a German before he was hanged; the role of the Judenrat in the liquidation of the Jews; murder of many Jews discovered in hiding places; revelation of hiding places by Jewish informers; execution of informers by Jews; continuation of the"Aktio" over 13 days; reduction of the area of the ghetto; hanging of three Jews; improvement of living conditions in the ghetto before the final liquidation; transfer of the last 1,700 Jews from the Grodno Ghetto to the Bialystok Ghetto; employment of the Jews in various factories; details about Zelikovitz, the informer and collaborator with the Germans; liquidation of the Bialystok Ghetto, 16-23 August 1943; escape of the witness from the death train; joining a group of Jews in the Briansk forests.