Read the Holocaust Necrology (list of names) from the Zabludow Yizkor Booko
Click here to learn about the Bialystok Ghetto uprising
Click Here to learn about the story of failed negotiations for the transfer of 1,264 Bialystok children to freedom
On Wednesday the 25th of June 1941 German Troops entered Zabludow. The truth of what happened to Zabludow and it's Jews is much worse than could be easily imagined. Most suffered a prolonged agony before they were murdered at the hands of the Nazis. The Germans set fire to the town, and most of it was burned including the wooden Synagogue, the centerpiece of the town. Some people were murdered in the first few days of the occupation. This was the case with my great uncle Birsha Bartnowski. About 1,400 remained in the town where a ghetto and Judenrat was formed. For many months they were used for slave labor under terrible conditions, tortured by the Germans until finally deported to Treblinka on November first, 1942. Some fled to Bialystok or surrounding small towns where almost all ultimately died. A very few survived the war by hiding, or by "miracles" survived the death camps. A handful survived the war fighting in the Soviet Army. Some returned to Zabludow after the war in the hope that someone, something survived.
The town was,
"Yudenrein . . . all that was left are green fields, weeds; in the edge of the field are some scattered huts, and also a few huts near the still standing Pravoslavic Church. Before we went to sleep each of us checked his gun because there were still some white soldiers in Poland that were looking for individual Jews who survived the holocaust".
The few survivors ultimately left for Israel, America, Argentina, Australia. Today not a single Jew calls Zabludow their home, and there is little trace of the Jewish civilization that existed threre for about 400 years.
Read letters written from Zabludow to Chicago less than one week before WW II Click here to learn more about the original Zabludow Yizkor Book Committee Click Here to view a holocaust era Map of Zabludow, drawn By Itzhok Chesler Click here to learn about the Bialystok Great Synagogue Fire Click here for Bialystok Memorial Website
Bartnowski History Zabludow Synagogue Maps Town History Links Zabludow "Ancient" Pnkas Web: 2003 Tilford Bartman
