Great Synagogue (Białystok)

The Great Synagogue (Polish: Wielka Synagoga w Białymstoku) was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located in Białystok, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland. The synagogue building was designed by Szlojme Rabinowicz and completed in 1913. The building served as a house of prayer until World War II when it was destroyed by Nazis on June 27, 1941. It was estimated that approximately 700 to 800^[a] Jewish people were inside the synagogue at the time of its destruction, by arson.

The synagogue was located on Suraska Street. Construction began in 1909, and the building was completed in 1913. It was designed by Szlojme (Shlomo) Jakow Rabinowicz and included three Byzantine Revival-style domes: a large one with a 10 m-high (33 ft) spire over the main hall with two smaller ones flanking it over the side halls.^[8]

On the morning of June 27, 1941, Nazi troops from Police Battalion 309 of the Ordnungspolizei surrounded the town square by the Great Synagogue and forced residents from their homes into the street. Some were shoved up against building walls and shot dead. Others, some 700-800^{[see note a.]} men, women and children, were locked in the synagogue, which was then set on fire; there they burned to death. The Nazi onslaught continued with the grenading of numerous homes and further shootings. As the flames from the synagogue spread and merged with the grenade fires, the entire square was engulfed. On that day, some 3,000 Jews lost their lives.^[9]

A reconstruction of the destroyed dome and a memorial plaque were dedicated in August 1995. The plaque reads: "Our splendid sanctuary fell victim to the flames on June 27, 1941. 2000 Jews were burnt alive in it by the German Nazi murderers."

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  The Great Synagogue and Nomer Tamid
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  The synagogue ruins in 1941
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  The memorial

1. ^ Estimates vary widely; some suggest the count could have reached as high as 2,500,^[1] while others estimate it much lower, around 500.^[2][3] The count of around 700^[4][1][5] to 800^[6][7] is likely closer to the actual figure. Among them were women with children.^[3]

1. ^ ^{a b} Dobroński, Adam (2003). "Los mieszkańców Białegostoku na przełomie czerwca i lipca 1941 roku" [The fate of the residents of Białystok at the turn of June and July 1941]. In Milewski, Jan Jerzy; Pyżewska, Anna (eds.). Początek wojny niemiecko-sowieckiej i losy ludności cywilnej [The beginning of the German-Soviet war and the fate of the civilian population] (in Polish). Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. p. 96. ISBN 83-89078-25-2.
2. ^ Longerich, Peter (2012). Holocaust. The Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-19-960073-1.
3. ^ ^{a b} Matthäus, Jürgen (2007). "Controlled Escalation: Himmler's Men in the Summer of 1941 and the Holocaust in the Occupied Soviet Territories". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 21 (2): 223–224.
4. ^ Westermann, Edward B. (2005). Hitler's police battalions. Enforcing racial war in the East. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-7006-1371-7.
5. ^ Browning, Christopher (1998). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: Harper Perennial. p. 12. ISBN 0060995068.
6. ^ Arad, Yitzhak (2009). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Lincoln, Jerusalem: University of Nebraska Press, Yad Vashem. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-8032-4519-8.
7. ^ Bender, Sara (2008). The Jews of Białystok during World War II and the Holocaust. Waltham, Hanover, London: Brandeis University Press, University Press of New England. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-58465-729-3.
8. ^ Bartman, Tilford. "The Bialystok Great Synagogue". Zabludow Memorial Website. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
9. ^ Raiha, Evelyn. "The Importance of World Peace: The Holocaust". GeoCities. Archived from the original on August 15, 2003.