Bialystok Ghetto

 The city of Bialystok is situated in North-Eastern Poland, 188 km from Warsaw and 54 km from the border with Belarus. In common with the region named after it, the city had fallen under the control of many different countries in the course of its history. Bialystok became part of Prussia in 1795 before being annexed to Russia in 1807. In 1921, following the cessation of hostilities between Poland and the Soviet Union, the city was incorporated into the state of Poland.

The 1931 census revealed a total population in excess of 91,000, of whom nearly 40,000, or 43% were Jewish. On the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939, the Jewish population of Bialystok had risen to approximately 50,000.

By 15 September 1939 the Germans had captured the city. Following the invasion of Eastern Poland by the Soviet Union on 17 September, Bialystok became part of the area to be occupied by the Soviet Union under the terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. On 22 September, Germany handed the city over to the Soviets, who occupied it for the next twenty-one months.  

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