1941 Białystok massacres
| 1941 Białystok massacres | |
|---|---|
Ruins of the Great Synagogue in Białystok, where on June 27, 1941, German policemen burned approximately 700–800 Jews. | |
| Location | Białystok, occupied Poland |
| Date | June 27, July 3–4 and July 12–13, 1941 |
| Incident type | Genocide, Mass shootings |
| Perpetrators | Ernst Weiss, Heinrich Schneider, Otto Bradfisch, Max Montua, Gustav Waldow, Gottlieb Nagel |
| Organizations | Ordnungspolizei, Einsatzgruppen |
| Victims | from 6,500 to 7,000 Polish Jews |
1941 Białystok massacres refers to the series of pogroms and mass executions committed by the Ordnungspolizei and SS against the Jewish population of Białystok in occupied Poland. These atrocities were committed at the turn of June and July 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR.
On June 27, 1941, Białystok fell to German troops. Accompanied by Wehrmacht soldiers, members of the Police Battalion 309 entered the city. Initially tasked with searching the Jewish districts to apprehend Red Army remnants and "hostile elements," this operation took a brutal turn due to the radically anti-Semitic attitude of certain officers and non-commissioned officers. What began as a city search evolved into a massacre. On that day, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 of Białystok's Jews were murdered by the German policemen, with around 700–800 burned alive in the Great Synagogue.
Following this, on July 3, Einsatzgruppe B rounded up nearly a thousand Jews in Białystok. About 300 prisoners, primarily intellectuals, were executed the following day in the Pietrasze forest. Further executions, directly ordered by Heinrich Himmler, occurred on July 12 and 13. During these days, members of the police battalions 316 and 322 shot approximately 4,000 Jews in the Pietrasze forest.
Estimates suggest that at the turn of June and July 1941, the Nazis murdered between 6,500 and 7,000 Jews in Białystok. On August 1, 1941, the remaining Jews were confined to the newly established Białystok Ghetto.