The 80th anniversary of Białystok Ghetto Uprising

The central part of the official commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Białystok Ghetto Uprising was held in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The monument stands at the square named after Mordechai Tenenbaum, the leader of the uprising.

Earlier on, candles were lit at the Białystok Synagogue Memorial. The synagogue was burnt down by Germans on June 27, 1941, with an estimated number of 2,000 Jews inside. This date symbolizes the beginning of the extermination of the Jewish community in Białystok.

Sirens were sounded in the city at noon, marking the start of the official observances.

The ceremony was attended by a ghetto survivor Benjamin Midler, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski, Ambassador of Israel to Poland Yacov Livne as well as local authorities

"It's our duty to speak up for the memory of our brothers who are no longer with us," said Białystok Mayor Tadeusz Truskolaski.

Israeli ambassador said it was still difficult to conceive 80 years on how those tragic events could have taken place. Yacov Livne added there were also challenges and difficulties to overcome related to the part Jews had played in the history of Poland and mankind.

Representative of Germany's Ambassador to Poland, Robert Rohde, stressed it was difficult to find the right words to describe the crimes committed by the Nazi Germany in Poland.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose stepfather Samuel Pisar had been a Białystok Ghetto survivor, sent a message Wednesday marking the anniversary.

"Survival simply was not in the cards when, on August 16, 1943, hundreds of Jewish men and women in the Bialystok ghetto led an uprising against the Nazis – a rebellion, as one leader put it, to determine how, not whether, they would die," Blinken said in a video posted on social media.

He also said the following words about the insurgency: "I see it as one of countless acts of resistance by Jews in ghettos and Nazi German concentration camps across Europe – to reject their dehumanization, to reaffirm their dignity. Acts not of futility, but of bravery".

Blinken mentioned that the ceremony in Białystok was attended by his mother and Samuel Pisar's wife Judith Pisar, their two children, and three grandchildren.

The U.S. Secretary of State assured "the United States will always be your partner in keeping this history alive". "We’re taking another step in that effort by working with our Congress to invest $1 million to help create a virtual tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau so that more people who can’t visit can experience the indelible impact of seeing that site."

"So many more markers can and must be placed to educate people about this chapter of human history. For as my stepfather knew, 'Never again' was not a guarantee. It was a command, in his words, 'to do whatever I can in the struggle for a victory of hope over hate, destruction, and death, forces that can yet again, if not take care, drive humankind to madness'" - Blinken stressed.

The Białystok Ghetto Uprising was an insurrection against the Nazi German occupation authorities during World War II. The insurgency was launched on the night of August 16, 1943 and was the second-largest ghetto uprising organized in Nazi-occupied Poland after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April–May 1943.

The primary reason for the outbreak of the uprising were German preparations to the final liquidation of the ghetto. Three hundred poorly armed insurgents stood up against approx. 3,000 Germans with tanks and aircraft at their disposal.

It is estimated that only 150-200 people managed to escape the ghetto. Approximately 10,000 Jews were led to the Holocaust trains and sent to camps in Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz.

A group of 1,196 Jewish children and several dozen caregivers from Białystok were taken to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The Germans tried to negotiate an exchange of the group for POWs, but to no effect. The children were killed in Auschwitz in October of 1943.

At least two Jews who had hidden in the ghetto ruins survived until the entry of the Soviet Army on July 27, 1944.